Peter Dalcher

Peter Dalcher

Peter Dalcher (born April 26, 1926 in Pessac ; † December 30, 2010 in Zug ) was a Swiss linguist and lexicographer and the fifth editor-in-chief of the Swiss Idiotikon .

Life and work

Dalcher was born in Aquitaine, France, where his father from the Basel area worked for a Swiss company. After the family returned to Switzerland, he attended primary and cantonal schools in Zug. Dalcher completed his subsequent studies in German and English in Zurich , Basel and Aberdeen and completed it with Rudolf Hotzenköcherle with a dissertation on fishing terminology published in the Zuger Urkundenbuch in 1957 .

Even as a student, Dalcher compiled material from the as yet unprinted holdings of the Swiss Idiotikon for the attention of the German dictionary . In 1955 he took up a position as editor at the Idiotikon and was editor-in-chief (as successor to Hans Wanner ) from 1974 until his retirement in 1991.

Dalcher started teaching Middle High German at the University of Freiburg im Üechtland in 1969 and was appointed adjunct professor for German linguistics there in 1976. He also held teaching positions at the University of Zurich . He was particularly interested in the Anglicisms in Swiss German , about which he created a comprehensive collection that is now kept in the Idiotikon's archive and which was put online in 2020.

In addition to his professional activity, Dalcher was a member of the Zuger Large Municipal Council (communal legislature) and the Zug Cantonal School Council for the Free Democratic Party , and he served as Vice President and President of the Zuger Kunstgesellschaft for a good decade. He vehemently advocated the preservation of the landscape of his closer home. His humorous side was expressed, among other things, in the pieces he wrote for the Cabaret Durzug .

Honors

In 1991 Dalcher received the recognition award of the Canton of Zug “for his services as a linguist and his work in cultural associations”, and in 1991 and 2001 conferences were organized in his honor.

In addition, two commemorative publications were dedicated to him:

• Commemoration for Peter Dalcher, editor-in-chief of the Swiss German dictionary, on his 60th birthday on April 26, 1986, presented by his editorial colleagues. Zurich 1987 (supplement to the report on the year 1986 of the Swiss German dictionary). [With bibliography]
• Gömmer MiGro? Changes and developments in today's Swiss-German. Results of the linguistic conference on the 75th birthday of Peter Dalcher, Freiburg / Switzerland, 4th / 5th May 2001, ed. by Beat Dittli, Annelies Häcki Buhofer and Walter Haas , Freiburg 2003 (Germanistica Friburgensia 18). [With bibliography.]

Particular mention should be made of the obituaries:

• Hans-Peter Schifferle: Fascinated by the words. Thoughts on parting with Peter Dalcher. In: Swiss German Dictionary. Report on 2010, Zurich 2011, pp. 16–20.

Selected publications

Swiss Idioticon

• Numerous word articles in volumes 12, 13, 14 and 15.

monograph

• The fishing terminology in the document book of the city and office of Zug 1352 to 1528. Dissertation University of Zurich, Frauenfeld 1957 (contributions to Swiss-German dialect research VII).

Cooperation

• Hans Bossard, with the assistance of Peter Dalcher: Zuger Mundartbuch. Grammar and dictionaries. Zurich 1962 (grammars and dictionaries of Swiss German IV).
• Glossary for the Zuger Urkundenbuch von Stadt und Amt Zug (1352–1528), ed. from a commission of the Zuger Verein für Heimatgeschichte, Zug 1964, pp. 1509–1536.

Essays

• The Zugeric dialect forms. A contribution to linguistic geography. In: Zuger Neujahrsblatt 1951, Zug 1951, pp. 27–38.
• From the language of the Baar people. In: Heimatbuch Baar, Baar 1958, pp. 56–61.
• On the Cham dialect. In: Zuger Neujahrsblatt 1958, Zug 1958, pp. 52–66.
• About relative pronouns in Swiss German. In: Language life in Switzerland. Linguistics, name research, folklore [= Festschrift for Rudolf Hotzenköcherle], ed. by Paul Zinsli u. a., Bern 1963, pp. 115-132.
• The influence of English on the colloquial language of German-speaking Switzerland. In: Swiss German Dictionary. Report on the year 1966, Zurich 1967, pp. 11–22.
• Something from the «boss». In: Swiss German Dictionary. Report on the year 1967, Zurich 1968, pp. 31–38.
• Paper and ghost words from German-speaking Switzerland. In: Festschrift Gottfried Boesch, Schwyz 1980, pp. 107–111.
• The border zone between name and appellative: a challenge for the lexicologist? In: Proceedings of the 13th International Congress of Onomastic Sciences I, Warsaw 1981, pp. 329-335.
• A popular edition of the idiot? In: The Swiss Dictionaries. Contributions to their scientific and cultural significance, for which SGG ed. by Ottavio Lurati and Hans Stricker, Freiburg 1982, pp. 231-237.
• Anglicisms in Swiss German. The evaluation by computer of a survey conducted in 1964/5. In: English in contact with other languages. Studies in honor of Broder Carstensen on the occasion of his 60th birthday, ed. by Wolfgang Viereck and Wolf-Dietrich Bald, Budapest 1986, pp. 179–206.
• Old High German in the Swiss Idiotikon. In: Old High German, Volume 2: Words and Names, History of Research, ed. by Rolf Bergmann u. a., Heidelberg 1987, pp. 1025-1029.
• Old Güüchmaarti and old Stumpig. A piece of oral poetry from central Switzerland by Franz Stump, ed. by Peter Dalcher and Paul Kamer with the help of Lotti Arter. In: Festgabe für Arno Ruoff, Tübingen 1990, pp. 60–79. - Again: old Güüchmaarti and old Stumpig. An alpine epic from central Switzerland by Franz Stump, ed. by Peter Dalcher. In: Der Geschichtsfreund 156 (2003), pp. 147–170, doi : 10.5169 / seals-118790 .
• "What does a playboy do when he is not playing?" On the use of English verbs in the written language and dialect of German-speaking Switzerland. In: Alemannic dialect research. Balance sheet and perspectives. Contributions to the 11th conference of Alemannic dialectologists, ed. by Heinrich Löffler with the assistance of Christoph Grolimund and Mathilde Gyger, Tübingen and Basel 1995, pp. 55–64 (Basler Studies on German Language and Literature 68).
• To some fish names. In: Dan do Oide. Essays in Memory of Conn R. O'Cleirigh, Dublin 1997, pp. 105-114.
• The huchen and its etymologies. In: Persistence and Change. Festschrift for Herbert Tatzreiter for his 60th birthday, ed. by Werner Bauer and Hermann Scheuringer, Vienna 1998, pp. 39–47.
• How the Swiss Idioticon deals with the nursery rhyme words. In: Income from dialectology and lexicography. Festgabe for Werner Bauer for his 60th birthday, ed. by Herbert Tatzreiter u. a., Vienna 1999, pp. 31-48.
• Central Swiss dialect specialties. In: Der Geschichtsfreund 154 (2001), pp. 64-74, doi : 10.5169 / seals-118780 .
• On the peculiarities and characteristics of German-Swiss Anglicisms. In: Alemannic dialectology: ways into the future. Contributions to the 16th workshop for Alemannic dialectology in Freiburg / Friborg from September 7th to 10th, 2008, ed. by Helen Christen u. a., Stuttgart 2010 (ZDL supplement 141), pp. 219-230.

Anglicism Collection

• Anglicism collection by Peter Dalcher.

Web links

• Literature by and about Peter Dalcher in the catalog of the German National Library
• Publications by and about Peter Dalcher in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library