Adolf Tobler

Adolf Tobler (24 May 1835, in Hirzel – 18 March 1910, in Berlin) was a Swiss-German linguist and philologist. He was the brother of linguist Ludwig Tobler (1827–1895).

He studied Romance philology at the universities of Zürich and Bonn, receiving his doctorate in 1857. At Bonn, he was influenced by the teachings of Friedrich Christian Diez and Nicolaus Delius. After graduation, he worked as a schoolteacher at the Solothurn cantonal school, then at the gymnasium in Bern. In 1867, he relocated to the University of Berlin, where from 1871 up until his death, he held the chair of Romance philology. In 1890/91, he served as university rector.

The "Tobler-Mussafia law", a grammatical rule applicable to Romance languages is named after Tobler and Austrian philologist Adolf Mussafia.

Among his better written efforts was the five-volume Vermischte Beiträge zur französischen Grammatik ("Miscellaneous contributions to French grammar"; 1886–1912). His creation of an Old French dictionary was unfinished at the time of his death, being posthumously edited and published by Erhard Lommatzsch ("Tobler-Lommatzsch", Altfranzösisches wörterbuch; 11 volumes). Other noted works by Tobler include:

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