- Gerhard Rohlfs
Gerhard Rohlfs (1892 - 1986) taught
Romance language s andliterature at the universities ofTübingen andMunich inGermany . He was described as an "archeologist of words".His main interest was the languages and dialects spoken in South Italy and he travelled extensively in this region. He studied the
Griko language (a Greek dialect still spoken in a few places inSalento and in southCalabria ) and found several indications suggesting thatGriko is a direct descendant of the language originally spoken by the Greek colonists ofMagna Grecia . He first advanced this theory in his book "Griechen und Romanen in Unteritalien" (Geneva, 1924). He also published two complete vocabularies of the dialects spoken inCalabria (published in Milan 1938-1939) and inSalento (Munich 1956-1961). His main work is considered to be his "Historical Grammar of the Italian Language and its Dialects" ("Historische Grammatik der italienischen Sprache und ihrer Mundarten", Berna, 1949-1954). He received honorary degrees from the University ofCalabria inCosenza and the University ofSalento inLecce .
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