Éva Buchi (Eva Büchi in German) is a

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries. It is divided into two separate academic disciplines: * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionary, dictionaries. * The ...

specializing in the

Romance languages The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...

Biography

After leaving school in 1983 she began training as a teacher, subsequently studying French linguistics at the

University of Bern The University of Bern (, , ) is a public university, public research university in the Switzerland, Swiss capital of Bern. It was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the canton of Bern. It is a comprehensive university offering a br ...

, where she obtained her doctorate in 1994. From 1987 to 1993 she worked as a research assistant and editor on the French etymological dictionary project FEW (

Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch The ( German for French Etymological Dictionary) or FEW is the principal etymological dictionary of the Gallo-Romance languages (such as French). It was the brainchild of the Swiss philologist Walther von Wartburg. History The first edition ...

) in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

. Her subsequent research continued to focus mainly on the lexicography and history of the Romance languages. From 1993 to 1995, with the support of the

Swiss National Science Foundation The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF, German: , SNF; French: , FNS; Italian: ) is a science research support organisation mandated by the Swiss Federal Government. The Swiss National Science Foundation was established under private law b ...

, Buchi continued to edit the FEW, now attached to the National Institute of the French Language (INaLF) in

Nancy, France Nancy is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the northeastern Departments of France, French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle. It was the capital of the Duchy of Lorraine, which was Lorraine and Barrois, annexed by France under King Louis X ...

. Since 1995 she has been a researcher at the

French National Centre for Scientific Research The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 engi ...

(CNRS) as part of INaLF, later ATILF (Analyse et traitement informatique de la langue française). There she primarily works on the Romance Etymological Dictionary (DÉRom). Since 2005 she has been Research Director at ATILF, and from 2013 to 2017 she was the head of the institute. In addition, from 1999 to 2003 Buchi worked as a lecturer at

Marc Bloch University The University Marc Bloch, also known as Strasbourg II or UMB, was a university in Strasbourg, Alsace, France. As of 2006, it had around 13,000 students. Its name used to be ''Université des Sciences Humaines'' (University of Social Sciences), bu ...

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

. In 2003 she obtained her

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

at the Sorbonne in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, supervised by Jean-Pierre Chambon. Following this she lectured at

Nancy 2 University Nancy 2 University (''Université Nancy 2'') was a French university located in Nancy, France. It was a member of the Nancy-Université federation, a group of the three higher education institutions in Nancy.

, which later became part of the

University of Lorraine The University of Lorraine (), abbreviated as UL, is a public research university based in Lorraine, Grand Est region, France. It was created on 1 January 2012, by the merger of Henri Poincaré University, Nancy 2 University, Paul Verlaine Un ...

. In 2007 the Society of Romance Linguistics (SLiR) awarded her the

Albert Dauzat Albert Dauzat (; 4 July 1877 – 31 October 1955) was a French linguist specializing in toponymy and onomastics Onomastics (or onomatology in older texts) is the study of proper names, including their etymology, history, and use. An ''alethony ...

Prize. In 2019 she was elected as a member of the Academia Europaea.

Works

Éva Buchi has written numerous entries for the French Etymological Dictionary. What follows is a small selection of her other scholarly works. * Buchi, Éva, & Wolfgang Schweickard. 2009. Romanistique et étymologie du fonds lexical héréditaire : du REW au DÉRom (Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman). (Romance philology and etymology of the inherited lexicon: from the REW to the DÉRom (Romance Etymological Dictionary).) In Carmen Alén Garabato, Teddy Arnavielle & Christian Camps (eds.), ''La Romanistique dans tous ses états'', Paris: L’Harmattan: 97‐110. * Buchi, Éva. 2010. Where Caesar's Latin does not belong: a comparative grammar based approach to Romance etymology. In Charles Brewer (ed.), ''Selected Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Historical Lexicography and Lexicology held at St Anne's College, Oxford, 16–18 June 2010'', Oxford: Oxford University Research Archive. * Buchi, Éva. 2016. Etymological dictionaries. In Philip Durkin (ed.), ''The Oxford handbook of lexicography'', Oxford: Oxford University Press: 338-349.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buchi, Eva Women linguists Living people Research directors of the French National Centre for Scientific Research Linguists of French Linguists from Switzerland Romance philologists Etymologists Year of birth missing (living people) University of Bern alumni