Werner Hodler

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Werner Oskar Felix Hodler (born June 25, 1887 in Nidau ; † April 17, 1974 in Zuchwil ; citizen of Gurzelen ) was a Swiss German philologist , dialectologist , teacher and editor. He became known in linguistics in particular with his monumental work on Bern German syntax , in biblical circles through the publication of a magazine and various religious writings.

Life

Hodler was born in the Bernese Seeland , but his parents moved to the city of Bern a little later . There he attended school and passed the Matura in autumn 1906. At the University of Bern he studied German , English , general history and pedagogy and in 1910 passed the examination for a higher teaching post. At the end of 1911 he received his doctorate with a thesis on the Bern German word formation . He then taught German for a year at the cantonal commercial school in Bellinzona .

In 1912 Hodler was only employed on a probationary basis, from the beginning of 1913 onwards, as an editor at the Schweizerischer Idiotikon , and thus succeeded Emil Abegg . When the federal government and the cantons severely cut their subsidies for the dictionary as a result of the First World War , the executive committee had no choice but to dismiss the youngest editor, Hodler, in 1915.

For many decades he then worked as a teacher at the Olten Business and Transport School .

Linguistic work

Hodler's dissertation, Contributions to word formation and word meaning in Bern German , submitted in 1911, printed in 1915 and reprinted in 1970, is still one of the most detailed works on Swiss German word formation. Using his Bernese dialect, he meticulously demonstrated the numerous possibilities of the language, for example derivatives on -e (n), -ele (n), -ere (n), -tse (n), -ne (n), - ige (n) and prefixings with g (e) -, b (e) -, ver, zer-, er, e (n) t-, in the noun and others those ending in -i, -e (n), -er, ere (n), -el, -ele (n), -lig, -ech, -ete (n), -et, -i (n) g, -ei, -nis and so on.

The fact that Hodler was no longer employed at a scientific institution after leaving the “Swiss Idiotikon” did not prevent him from continuing to publish linguistically. After his morphological debut, he devoted himself to syntax . It is true that his work Basics of a Germanic Word Order, which would have been ready for printing in 1951, was never published. But three years later, in 1954, his book Basics of a Germanic Article Theory was published in the renowned “Germanic Library” series.

He then turned back to the dialect: in 1969 his monumental Berndeutsche Syntax appeared . Conceived as part of a Bern German grammar, which in turn was intended as a secondary and auxiliary product of the edition of Jeremias Gotthelf's work, Hodler's 750-page description of the dialectal syntax and morphosyntax of southwestern Swiss German became one of the most comprehensive studies of sentence structure and related research Phenomena within the German language in general. In addition to Gotthelf, he used the works of dialect authors such as Ernst Balzli , Simon Gfeller , Hans Zulliger , Rudolf von Tavel , Otto von Greyerz and Emil Balmer as sources and also consulted the related neighboring dialects, which incorporated texts by Josef Reinhart from Solothurn as well as those by the Valais Moritz Tscheinen , Peter Joseph Ruppen and Hedwig Anneler . - The Bern German syntax was discussed quite critically. Andreas Lötscher ended his review as follows:

On the whole, one can say that, in spite of the highly unsatisfactory methodical processing of the problems, on careful study one will discover a wealth of problems which await a thorough and detailed investigation. One can only hope that they will find one too. "

In addition, Hodler repeatedly published smaller articles on the vocabulary, syntax and morphology of Swiss German in Sprachspiegel, the organ of the Swiss Association for the German language .

Act as a Bible Student

Hodler was an active Bible Student , initially within and then outside the Watchtower Society . In 1925 he worked for the Swiss editorial team of the Golden Age and, from 1940, editor of the Bible researcher magazine The Burning Lamp . He went on to write such scriptures as Israel is the fate of the world and Elias will come . His writing spread as far as America, where the group “ Dawn ” published the font A Voice from Switzerland in 1932 under his author's name .

Publications

  • Article in the Schwyzerischen Idiotikon, Volume VIII.
Books
  • Contributions to word formation and word meaning in Bern German. Diss. Univ. Zurich. Francke, Bern 1915; Reprinted by Kraus, Nendeln / Liechtenstein 1970.
  • Basics of a Germanic article theory. Winter, Heidelberg 1954 (Germanische Bibliothek, 3rd row).
  • Bern German syntax. Francke, Bern 1969.
  • Edited by Felix Hodler: The Bern painter Hermann Hodler. 1888-1965. Presentation of his life and work based on his letters and lifelong ties by his older brother Werner Hodler. Muri 1994.
Linguistic essays
  • The apparent object. In: Sprachspiegel 15, 1959, pp. 165-169 ( digitized version ).
  • Rübis and stübis and other adverbs ending in -is. In: Sprachspiegel 18, 1962, pp. 100-104 ( digitized version ).
  • Bern German etymologies. In: Sprachspiegel 19, 1963, pp. 10-14 (subject: the words naadisch, notti, nüüschti ) ( digitized version ).
  • A problematic verbal form of the highest Alemannic. Sprachspiegel 19, 1963, pp. 108–111 (subject: the sound wää for normal Swiss German wäär / wëër “would be”) ( digitized version ).
  • An elderly buck. In: Sprachspiegel 19, 1963, pp. 143–145 (subject: the forms myner, dyner, “my, yours” etc.) ( digitized version ).
  • About relative pronouns and relative clauses in Bern German. In: Sprachspiegel 20, 1964, pp. 105–111 (first part, digitized version), 140–148 (third part !, digitized version), 178–182 (second part, digitized version ).
  • Eim in the sense of sy. A Bernese expression that knew how to hide. In: Sprachspiegel 20, 1964, pp. 38-40 ( digitized version ).
  • On the use of verbal forms in Gotthelf's written language. In: Spachspiegel 21, 1965 ( digitized version ).
  • Stylistic about Gotthelf's language and general dialect. In: Sprachspiegel 23, 1967, pp. 70–76 ( digitized version), 114–120 ( digitized version ).
  • Adverbial composition in Bernese. In: Sprachspiegel 25, 1969, pp. 12-18 ( digitized version), 39-44 ( digitized version ).
  • To the dialectic sentence structure. Change of construction at Gotthelf. In: Sprachspiegel 27, 1971 ( digitized version ).
Literary essay
  • To the explanation of Goethe's "Iphigenie". In: Germanisch- Romansische MONTHLY 41, 1960, pp. 158–164.
Religious writings and contributions
  • The Beast in Revelation 17-13: Biblical Study. Brinkmann, 1931. (Translation into English: A Voice from Switzerland. New Jersey 1936.)
  • Elias will come first. Degersheim 1936.
  • What does God want with the Jews? A consideration of the Jewish question in the light of the Bible. Self-published, Olten, 1940.
  • Investigations into the Messiah. Self-published, Olten, 1944.
  • Israel, the fate of the world. A consideration of the Jewish question. Olten and Schaffhausen 1949.
  • The Book of Job. An interpretation. Olten, 1950.
  • Israel. A chosen people. Schaffhausen 1963.
  • Collaboration in the Golden Age magazine
  • Publication of the magazine The Burning Lamp

literature

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Data according to the dictionary's report on the year 1912. In the résumé of his dissertation he writes that he applied in 1912 and that he took up the position in October 1913.
  2. ^ By Christian Hostettler in the contributions to the history of German language and literature 95 (1973), pp. 395-402 and by Andreas Lötscher in the journal for German dialectology and linguistics 41 (1974), pp. 72-75.
  3. ↑ Manfred Gebhard: History of Jehovah's Witnesses. Berlin 1999, p. 169 f. . - Gebhard's statement that the Berndeutsche Syntax is a new edition of his dissertation from 1915 is incorrect.
personal data
SURNAME Hodler, Werner
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hodler, Werner Oskar Felix
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss linguist and biblical scholar
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Nidau
DATE OF DEATH April 17, 1974
Place of death Zuchwil