Gerhard Rohlfs (July 14, 1892 – September 12, 1986) was a German

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 ...

. He taught

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 ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

at the

universities A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...

and

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. He was described as an "archeologist of words".

Biography

Rohlfs was born in Berlin-Lichterfelde. His main interest was the languages and dialects spoken in Southern Italy and he travelled extensively in this region. He studied Italiot Greek (a language still spoken in a few places in

Salento Salento (; Salentino dialect, Salentino: ''Salentu''; Griko language, Salento Griko: ) is a Cultural area, cultural, List of historical states of Italy, historical, and geographic region at the southern end of the administrative region of Apuli ...

, southern

Apulia Apulia ( ), also known by its Italian language, Italian name Puglia (), is a Regions of Italy, region of Italy, located in the Southern Italy, southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Ot ...

, and in Bovesia, southern

Calabria Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...

) and found several indications suggesting that Italiot-Greek is a direct descendant of the language originally spoken by the Greek colonists of

Magna Grecia Magna Graecia refers to the Greek-speaking areas of southern Italy, encompassing the modern Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, and Sicily. These regions were extensively settled by Greeks beginning in the 8th century ...

. He first advanced this theory in his book (''Greeks and Romans in Southern Italy'', 1924). He also published two complete vocabularies of the dialects of Bovesia (1938–1939) and Salento (1956–1961). His main work is considered to be his ''Historical Grammar of the Italian Language and its Dialects'' (, 1949–1954). He received honorary degrees from the University of Calabria in

Cosenza Cosenza (; Languages of Calabria#Northern Calabrian (Cosentian), Cosentian: ''Cusenza'', ) is a city located in Calabria, Italy. The city centre has a population of approximately 70,000, while the urban area counts more than 200,000 inhabitants. ...

and the University of Salento in

Lecce Lecce (; ) is a city in southern Italy and capital of the province of Lecce. It is on the Salentine Peninsula, at the heel of the Italian Peninsula, and is over two thousand years old. Because of its rich Baroque architecture, Lecce is n ...

. He died in

Selected works

* ''Romanische Sprachgeographie: Geschichte und Grundlagen, Aspekte und Probleme mit dem Versuch eines Sprachatlas der romanischen Sprachen''. C. H. Beck, München 1971. * ''Historische Grammatik der italienischen Sprache und ihrer Mundarten'', 3 Bände, Francke, Bern 1949–1954; Neubearb. unter dem Titel ''Grammatica storica della lingua italiana e dei suoi dialetti'', 3 Bde., Einaudi, Turin 1966–1969 und mehrere Nachdrucke. * Vocabolario dei dialetti salentini (Terra d'Otranto). Verlag der Bayer. Akad. d. Wiss., München, 2 volumes (1956-1957) and 1 supplement (1961) - reprinted by Congedo Editore, (Galatina) in 1976. * ''Rätoromanisch. Die Sonderstellung des Rätoromanischen zwischen Italienisch und Französisch; eine kulturgeschichtliche und linguistische Einführung''. C. H. Beck, München 1975, . * ''Le Gascon. Etudes de philologie pyrénéenne''. Editions Marrimpouey Jeune, Pau & Niemeyer, Tübingen 1977. * ''Sermo vulgaris Latinus. Vulgärlateinisches Lesebuch''. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1951 (Sammlung kurzer Lehrbücher der romanischen Sprachen und Literaturen; Band 13). * ''Lexicon graecanicum Italiae inferioris''. 2., erw. u. völlig neubearb. Aufl. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1964 (1. Aufl. u.d.T.: ''Etymologisches Wörterbuch der unteritalienischen Gräzität''). * ''Nuovo dizionario dialettale della Calabria. Con repertorio italo-calabro''. Nuova ed. interamente rielab., ampl. ed aggiornata, 3. rist. Longo Ravenna 1982. * ''Soprannomi siciliani''. Palermo 1984 (Centro di Studi Filologici e Linguistici Siciliani. Lessici siciliani; Band 2). * ''Gerhard Rohlfs - La Calabria contadina - Scavo linguistico e fotografie del primo Novecento'', a cura di/Hrsg. Antonio Panzarella, Edizioni Scientifiche Calabresi, Rende 2006, (Bildband mit Fotos, die Rohlfs aufgenommenen und sprachwissenschaftlich kommentiert hat). * ''Primitive Kuppelbauten in Europa''. BAdW. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung München 1957 (it. Ausg. ''Primitive costruzioni a cupola in Europa'', Firenze 1963)

References

* Hans Helmut Christmann: ''Gerhard Rohlfs (1892–1986)''. In: '' Eikasmós'' 4, 1993, S. 317–320
PDF
. * * Salvatore Gemelli: ''Gerhard Rohlfs (1892–1986). Una vita per l’Italia dei dialetti''. Rom 1990 (mit Schriftenverzeichnis von Liselotte Bihl, S. 237–290, insgesamt 727 Titel). * Utz Maas: ''Verfolgung und Auswanderung deutschsprachiger Sprachforscher 1933-1945''. Band 1: Dokumentation. Biobibliographische Daten A-Z. Stauffenburg Verlag, Tübingen 2010, S. 841

External links

*
Veröffentlichungen von Gerhard Rohlfs
im Opac der Regesta Imperii * Eintrag "Rohlfs, Gerhard" in Munzinger Online/Personen - Internationales Biographisches Archiv, URL: http://www.munzinger.de/document/00000005329 {{DEFAULTSORT:Rohlfs, Gerhard 1892 births 1986 deaths Writers from Berlin Linguists from Germany Literature educators Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Dialectologists Grammarians from Germany Linguists of Italian German male writers Members of the Institute for Catalan Studies 20th-century German linguists Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences