Eugen Dieth (18 November 1893, in Neukirch an der Thur – 24 May 1956, in

Zollikon Zollikon is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in Meilen District in the canton of Zürich, Switzerland known for being one of Switzerland's most exclusive districts. Besides the main settlement of Zollikon, which lies on the shore of L ...

) was a Swiss linguist, phonetician and dialectologist. He is well known for his work in English and German

phonetics Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...

, and for co-initiating the

Survey of English Dialects The Survey of English Dialects was undertaken between 1950 and 1961 under the direction of Harold Orton of the English department of the University of Leeds. It aimed to collect the full range of speech in England and Wales before local differe ...

Biography

Eugen Dieth studied

General Linguistics Theoretical linguistics is a term in linguistics that, like the related term general linguistics, can be understood in different ways. Both can be taken as a reference to the theory of language, or the branch of linguistics that inquires into the ...

, English and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

at the

University of Zurich The University of Zurich (UZH, ) is a public university, public research university in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of the ...

and the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public university, public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a Theology, theological seminary. It rema ...

. He earned his PhD in 1919 with a dissertation on

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...

syntax In linguistics, syntax ( ) is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituenc ...

. Between 1922 and 1927 he was ''lecturer in German'' in

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

. In 1927 he became

Professor extraordinarius Academic ranks in Germany are the titles, relative importance and power of professors, researchers, and administrative personnel held in academia. Overview Appointment grades * (Pay grade: ''W3'' or ''W2'') * (''W3'') * (''W2'') * (''W2'', ...

and in 1947

Professor ordinarius Academic ranks in Germany are the titles, relative importance and power of professors, researchers, and administrative personnel held in academia. Overview Appointment grades * (Pay grade: ''W3'' or ''W2'') * (''W3'') * (''W2'') * (''W2'', ...

for English,

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

and General Phonetics at the University of Zurich. He founded the Phonetics Laboratory of the University of Zurich in 1935. Between 1927 and 1936 he worked as a part-time editor for the

Schweizerisches Idiotikon ''Schweizerisches Idiotikon'' ("the Swiss idioticon", also known as ''Wörterbuch der schweizerdeutschen Sprache'' "Dictionary of the Swiss German language") is an ongoing, major project of lexicography of the Swiss German dialects. Publication beg ...

and between 1934 and his unexpected death from a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

in 1956 he was the director of the Phonogram Archives of the University of Zurich. He married Hilde Martha Bachmann, the daughter of the Swiss professor of German Philology at the University of Zurich, Albert Bachmann, in 1951.

Achievements

Eugen Dieth published an orthographic handbook for

Swiss German Swiss German (Standard German: , ,Because of the many different dialects, and because there is no #Conventions, defined orthography for any of them, many different spellings can be found. and others; ) is any of the Alemannic German, Alemannic ...

in 1938, entitled ''Schwyzertütschi Dialäktschrift'' (= Swiss German Dialect Orthography). His system of spelling Swiss German is commonly referred to as Dieth-Schreibung. It postulates that the vernacular spelling ought to reflect the phonological characteristics and individuality of the various Swiss dialects. It can therefore be characterized as a system of

phonetic transcription Phonetic transcription (also known as Phonetic script or Phonetic notation) is the visual representation of speech sounds (or ''phonetics'') by means of symbols. The most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, such as the ...

meant to be used by lay people. In its less strict form, it tries to limit itself to the usage of the letters and diacritics that are available on a simple typing machine. In 1950 he published his ''Vademekum der Phonetik'', a textbook classic in German-speaking phonetics. As professor of English, he was also very active in the field of dialectology in Britain. His description of the dialect of

Buchan Buchan is a coastal district in the north-east of Scotland, bounded by the Ythan and Deveron rivers. It was one of the original provinces of the Kingdom of Alba. It is now one of the six committee areas of Aberdeenshire. Etymology The ge ...

was an important contribution to Scottish dialectology. More importantly, however, he initiated the work for the

and compiled—together with

Harold Orton Harold Orton (23 October 1898 – 7 March 1975) was a British dialectologist and professor of English language and Medieval Literature at the University of Leeds. Early life Orton was born in Byers Green, County Durham, on 23 October 1898 and ...

—the ''Questionnaire for a Linguistic Atlas of England.''

Selected works

* Dieth, Eugen (1932). ''A Grammar of the Buchan Dialect (Aberdeenshire)''. Cambridge: University Press. * Dieth, Eugen (1938). ''Schwyzertütschi Dialäktschrift. Leitfaden einer einheitlichen Schreibweise für alle Dialekte''. Zürich: Orell Füssli. * Dieth, Eugen (1950). ''Vademekum der Phonetik. Phonetische Grundlagen für das wissenschaftliche und praktische Studium der Sprachen''. Bern: Francke. * Dieth, Eugen and Harold Orton (1952). ''A Questionnaire for a Linguistic Atlas of England''. Leeds: Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society.

References

* Brunner, Rudolf und Eduard Kolb (1956). "Eugen Dieth." In: ''Zeitschrift für Phonetik und allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft'' 9, 397-406. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dieth, Eugen 1893 births 1956 deaths Linguists from Switzerland University of Zurich alumni University of Geneva alumni Academic staff of the University of Zurich 20th-century Swiss linguists