Heinrich Schmid

Heinrich Schmid ( born April 6, 1921 in Zurich, † February 23, 1999 ) was a Swiss linguist and the creator of Romansh roof languages ​​RG and Ladin Dolomitan.

Life and work

Heinrich Schmid lived his entire life in the same house in Zurich, where he was born. Despite a congenital deafness awoke in him already in his youth, the love of languages. Early on, he learned Greek and Latin, in addition to the Romance languages ​​French, Italian, Spanish and the individual Romansh dialects.

After matriculation he studied in Zurich Romance. His studies in which the focus was on language history and language geography, he completed in 1946 summa cum laude. After a stay in Florence, he returned to Switzerland, where he found only minimal adequate livelihood because of his hearing impairment. He finally received a position as assistant at the Rhaetian name book and worked for almost 15 years at Dicziunari RG with. In 1962 he completed his habilitation at the University of Zurich and soon after was promoted to assistant professor and three years later as associate professor.

Shortly before his retirement from academic teaching in 1983, he received in early 1982 from the Lia Rumantscha commissioned to create a common Grison Romanesque written language for all five main dialects. After only six weeks of work he put in April 1982 prior to its Guidelines for the common written language. This was followed by lively discussions and travel to all parts of the Romansh language area, where he campaigned for the common written language and was able to allay many reservations. This Romansh was more noticeable in the Swiss public and a new dynamic came into the Romansh language area, which affected the Ladin.

In 1988, asked representatives of the Dolomites Ladin Heinrich Schmid, to create a common written language for them. Schmid was finally able to experience the long-awaited publication of the Guidelines for the development of a common written language of the Dolomites Ladin in the summer of 1998. The Italian translation of this work, however, he did not live because he died of a heart attack in February 1999. His estate is located in the Biblioteca Chasa Jaura in Valchava.

Works

• To shape the formation of " dare" and " stare " in Roman. Thesis. Francke, Bern 1949.