Editing Gerhard Rohlfs (section)

== Biography ==
Rohlfs was born in [[Berlin-Lichterfelde]]. His main interest was the languages and dialects spoken in Southern Italy and he travelled extensively in this region. He studied [[Griko dialect|Italiot Greek]] (a language still spoken in [[Grecìa Salentina|a few places]] in [[Salento]], southern [[Apulia]], and in [[Bovesia]], southern [[Calabria]]) and found several indications suggesting that Italiot-Greek is a direct descendant of the language originally spoken by the Greek colonists of [[Magna Grecia]]. He first advanced this theory in his book {{lang|de|Griechen und Romanen in Unteritalien}} (''Greeks and Romans in Southern Italy'', 1924). He also published two complete vocabularies of the dialects of Bovesia (1938–1939) and Salento (1956–1961).

His main work is considered to be his ''Historical Grammar of the Italian Language and its Dialects'' ({{lang|de|Historische Grammatik der italienischen Sprache und ihrer Mundarten}}, 1949–1954). He received honorary degrees from the [[University of Calabria]] in [[Cosenza]] and the [[University of Salento]] in [[Lecce]]. He died in [[Tübingen]].