Wilhelm Wiget

Wilhelm Wiget, 1920s
Photo: Heinrich Riedel, Dorpat

Wilhelm Wiget (born March 21, 1885 in Degersheim ; † June 25, 1934 in Herisau ) was a Swiss professor of German language and literature in Tartu (Estonia) and of Germanic philology in Zurich .

Life

Wiget, a citizen of Kirchberg , was born as the son of Albert Wiget (1859–1927), a realteacher in Degersheim, in Untertoggenburg in St. Gallen. When his father took up the post of rector of the Herisau community school in 1886, the families moved to the nearby canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden. He attended high school in the city of St. Gallen . From 1905 he studied at the University of Zurich only philosophy , then German , English literature and psychology . Wiget received his doctorate in 1910 under Albert Bachmann with a thesis on the eastern Swiss dialect of Toggenburg , which was published in 1916 as Volume IX in the series " Contributions to Swiss German Grammar ". After a brief activity as an assistant teacher at the grammar school in Winterthur , he was appointed to the editorial team of the dictionary in 1910 by Bachmann, who was also editor-in-chief of Schweizerischer Idiotikons , as the successor to the late Hermann Blattner . At the same time he was head of the phonogram archive of the University of Zurich , which Bachmann was also head of. In 1913, however, Wiget left the job again; his successor at the Idiotikon was Karl Stucki .

In 1914 Wiget moved to Sweden , where he studied Scandinavian languages at Uppsala University . In the summer of 1915, he trained in experimental phonetics in Hamburg . In the same year he became a lecturer for German at Uppsala University; He turned down the offered extraordinary professorship in order not to have to forego his Swiss citizenship. Instead he took up a full professorship for German studies at the University of Tartu (Dorpat) in Estonia in 1919 or 1920 .

In 1932, Wiget was appointed full professor by the University of Zurich to the chair of his retired doctoral supervisor, Albert Bachmann, after his preferred candidate, Walter Henzen , had rejected his successor. Only three semesters in office, he suffered severe lung haemorrhage in September 1933 . After a spa stay in Leysin , he was finally transferred to the Herisau hospital, where he died at the age of 49. The chair then passed to Rudolf Hotzenköcherle .

Wiget was married to the Swede Johanna Thyra, born Eriksson (1887–1961), with whom he had four children.

Research and Teaching

Wiget had a pronounced talent for languages and was familiar with numerous European and several oriental languages. His teaching and research areas were German and Romance dialectology , Germanic language history , German in the Baltic States , Germanic - Baltic Finnish language relations, German literary history as well as research into Finnish fairy tales and legends . A larger work on the history of the quantity of syllables in the Germanic languages, which was completed in manuscript , was no longer printed. His publication languages were German, Estonian and Swedish.

In Zurich, Wiget introduced several innovations, including the “post seminar” based on the Swedish model, in which one could deepen what was heard in the lectures.

Publications (selection)

The sounds of the Toggenburg dialects. (= Contributions to Swiss German grammar. IX). Huber, Frauenfeld 1916.
Old Germanic sound investigations. In: Eesti Vabargiigi Tartu Ulikooli toimetsed. Acta et commentationes Universitas Tartuensis Dorpatensis. Row B: Humaniora. 2 (1922) 3, pp. 21-34.
The endings of female Germanic loanwords in Finnish. In: Johannes Friedrich u. a. (Ed.): Status and tasks of linguistics. Festschrift for Wilhelm Streitberg . Winter, Heidelberg 1924.
The umlaut of ahd. U in the Upper German dialects. In: Deutscher Sprachverein (Ed.): Albert Bachmann on his sixtieth birthday on November 12, 1923. Dedicated by friends and students. (= Magazine for German dialects. Year 19, 1924, issue 1/2). Berlin 1924, pp. 225-269.
with Ms. Betta and B. Bokowneff: Proposals for regulating German pronunciation in German schools in Estonia. Edited by the Dorpater German Teachers' Association. Dorpat 1926.
On the history of the Baltic German dictionary . In: Meeting reports of the Estonian Scholarly Society. 1926 [1928], pp. 27-47.
Origin and distribution of the newer Germanic loanwords in Estonian. In: Meeting reports of the Estonian Scholarly Society. 1927 [1929], pp. 255-275.
The dreams in Schiller's bride from Messina. In: Walter Muschg , Rudolf Hunziker (Ed.): Poetry and research. Festschrift for Emil Ermatinger on May 21, 1933 . Huber, Frauenfeld / Leipzig 1933.
Collaboration on the Swiss Idioticon , Volume VII.

Edition

An unknown version of Klinger's twins. In: Eesti Vabariigi Tartu Ulikooli toimetised. Acta et commentationes Universitas Tartuensis Dorpatensis. Row B: Humaniora. 28 (1932) 2, pp. 1-67.

editorial staff

Meeting reports of the Estonian learned society (1925 [1927] - 1929 [1931]).

literature

Christoph Landolt : Wiget, Wilhelm. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . Volume XIII, p. 460 f.
H [einrich] E [delmann]: Wiget, Wilhelm. In: Historical-Biographical Lexicon of Switzerland . Volume VII, p. 525.
Malle Rebane: Wiget, Wilhelm. In: Christoph König (Ed.), With the assistance of Birgit Wägenbaur u. a .: Internationales Germanistenlexikon 1800–1950 . Volume 3: R-Z. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-015485-4 , pp. 2029-2030.
Annual reports of the Swiss Idiotikon 1910 and 1913.
Wiget, Wilhelm in the matriculation edition of the University of Zurich .

Obituaries

Eesti keel 13 (1934), p. 4, pp. 97-100, by Paul Ariste .
University of Zurich. Report on the academic year 1934/35, p. 57 f., By Emil Ermatinger .
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, No. 1152 of June 26, 1934.
Zurich Monthly Chronicle, No. 8, 1934, p. 188, by S. M.
Zurich Post dated June 27, 1934.

Web links

Publications by and about Wilhelm Wiget in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library

Remarks

↑ For example, Wiget recorded the dialects of Neuwilen TG, Langenthal BE, Leissigen BE, Frutigen BE, Saanen BE, Lavin GR and Pitasch GR for the phonogram archive; Publication in: Swiss dialects. Edited by Otto Gröger on behalf of the leading commission of the phonogram archive of the University of Zurich . Hölder, Vienna 1914 (session reports of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna. Philosophical-Historical Class 176, 3, at the same time a communication from the Phonogram Archives Commission 36).
↑ According to the relevant annual report of the dictionary, the employment relationship at the Idiotikon was terminated in 1913 and not, as it is called in the Germanistenlexikon , in 1914.
↑ Two obituaries speak of 1919, the German scholar lexicon, the Historical and Biographical Encyclopedia, the Historical Dictionary and Matrikeledition of 1920. Perhaps, the difference in different years on appeal or the points commencement founded.

personal data
SURNAME	Wiget, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swiss philologist
DATE OF BIRTH	March 21, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH	Degersheim SG
DATE OF DEATH	June 25, 1934
Place of death	Herisau

[1] For example, Wiget recorded the dialects of Neuwilen TG, Langenthal BE, Leissigen BE, Frutigen BE, Saanen BE, Lavin GR and Pitasch GR for the phonogram archive; Publication in: Swiss dialects. Edited by Otto Gröger on behalf of the leading commission of the phonogram archive of the University of Zurich . Hölder, Vienna 1914 (session reports of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna. Philosophical-Historical Class 176, 3, at the same time a communication from the Phonogram Archives Commission 36).

[2] According to the relevant annual report of the dictionary, the employment relationship at the Idiotikon was terminated in 1913 and not, as it is called in the Germanistenlexikon , in 1914.

[3] Two obituaries speak of 1919, the German scholar lexicon, the Historical and Biographical Encyclopedia, the Historical Dictionary and Matrikeledition of 1920. Perhaps, the difference in different years on appeal or the points commencement founded.