Georg Wenker
Encyclopedia
Georg Wenker was a German linguist who began documenting German dialect geography during the late nineteenth century. He is considered a pioneer in this field and has contributed several groundbreaking publications, most notably, the Deutscher Sprachatlas.
on January 25, 1852. There he attended Gymnasium and in 1872 received his eligibility to attend college. Beginning the summer semester of 1872, Wenker studied in Zürich
, Bonn
and Marburg
. In 1876, Wenker earned the Ph.D in Tübingen
with a dissertation topic on the shifting of German root syllables. In 1877 he took on the position as a librarian at Königlichen Universität Marburg, where he later received an honorary professorship in 1898. In 1886 he was appointed honorary member of the Koninklijke vlaamsche Academie voor taal- en letterkunde. Eventually, the institution became nationalized in 1888 and Wenker became director. He died in 1911.
and requested a transcription into the local dialect. From 1877 until 1887 Wenker successfully surveyed the entire country, and out of 50,000 surveys, 45,000 schoolmasters replied. Each questionnaire contained forty sentences, ranging from simple to somewhat difficult, and offered multiple points from which the local dialect could emerge. The first sentence, for example, was In winter the dry leaves fly around through the air.
The immense size of the corpus Wenker had before him proved to be a disadvantage. He was therefore confined to analyzing the variation of only a small number of certain words and within a small area as well. Moreover, the difficulty in publishing maps also hindered access to his work. He made two sets of maps by hand and both were published under the title The two maps each cover a single feature in north and central Germany.
Wenker continued collecting questionnaires after the publication of his atlas, but it took more than forty years for Wenker's vision to be realized. In 1926, under the editorship of Ferdinand Wrede, the first volume of the was published. Ironically, it would be only a matter of time before later dialectologist found Wenker's data, which was rich in phonological and word-structure information, too limited and scarce in lexical variants.
The project was discontinued in 1956, but resulted in over 16,000 hand-drawn maps, which are currently housed in the atlas archives in Marbug. In spite of the problems experienced by Wenker, his pioneering work nonetheless set the foundation for many successors.
Biography
Georg Wenker was born in DüsseldorfDüsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
on January 25, 1852. There he attended Gymnasium and in 1872 received his eligibility to attend college. Beginning the summer semester of 1872, Wenker studied in Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
and Marburg
Marburg
Marburg is a city in the state of Hesse, Germany, on the River Lahn. It is the main town of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district and its population, as of March 2010, was 79,911.- Founding and early history :...
. In 1876, Wenker earned the Ph.D in Tübingen
Tübingen
Tübingen is a traditional university town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, on a ridge between the Neckar and Ammer rivers.-Geography:...
with a dissertation topic on the shifting of German root syllables. In 1877 he took on the position as a librarian at Königlichen Universität Marburg, where he later received an honorary professorship in 1898. In 1886 he was appointed honorary member of the Koninklijke vlaamsche Academie voor taal- en letterkunde. Eventually, the institution became nationalized in 1888 and Wenker became director. He died in 1911.
Contributions and Significance
Wenker's first effort to map spoken dialect began in 1876 and involved surveying schoolmasters in northern Germany. He sent a list of sentences written in standardized GermanStandard German
Standard German is the standard variety of the German language used as a written language, in formal contexts, and for communication between different dialect areas...
and requested a transcription into the local dialect. From 1877 until 1887 Wenker successfully surveyed the entire country, and out of 50,000 surveys, 45,000 schoolmasters replied. Each questionnaire contained forty sentences, ranging from simple to somewhat difficult, and offered multiple points from which the local dialect could emerge. The first sentence, for example, was In winter the dry leaves fly around through the air.
The immense size of the corpus Wenker had before him proved to be a disadvantage. He was therefore confined to analyzing the variation of only a small number of certain words and within a small area as well. Moreover, the difficulty in publishing maps also hindered access to his work. He made two sets of maps by hand and both were published under the title The two maps each cover a single feature in north and central Germany.
Wenker continued collecting questionnaires after the publication of his atlas, but it took more than forty years for Wenker's vision to be realized. In 1926, under the editorship of Ferdinand Wrede, the first volume of the was published. Ironically, it would be only a matter of time before later dialectologist found Wenker's data, which was rich in phonological and word-structure information, too limited and scarce in lexical variants.
The project was discontinued in 1956, but resulted in over 16,000 hand-drawn maps, which are currently housed in the atlas archives in Marbug. In spite of the problems experienced by Wenker, his pioneering work nonetheless set the foundation for many successors.