Maximilian Lambertz

Maximilian Lambertz (27 July 1882 – 26 August 1963) was an Austrian linguist, folklorist, and a major personality of Albanology.

Biography Maximilian Lambertz was born on 27 July 1882 in Vienna. In the years 1900 to 1905, he studied comparative linguistics and classical philology in Vienna, and subsequently received his doctorate with a dissertation on the "Greek slave name" (Vienna 1907). A government scholarship enabled him to travel to Italy and Greece. While in Greece, he overheard the conversation of some fishermen from Attica. He got curious when he was told that it was the Arvanitika dialect of the Albanian .This would change his course of work from that moment on. After his return home, he became a school teacher at Bundesgymnasium in Vienna, but in 1907 he moved to Munich, where he participated in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae project. In 1911, he returned to Vienna and took his career as a school teacher again. His first publication in the field of Albanian studies (together with Georg Pekmezi) was a teaching and reading book of Albanian (published in Vienna, 1913), Lehr und Lesebuch des Albanischen (Manual and Reader of Albanian). In the years 1913 and 1914, he traveled for several weeks depending southern Italy, to study the Albanian dialects spoken there. In particular, he devoted himself to the less known northern dialects of Arbëresh, in the Abruzzo and Molise regions, especially the dialect of Villa Badessa (Alb: Badhesa). On this trip, his first collection of photographs came out.

Main works Lehr und Lesebuch des Albanischen (Manual and Reader of Albanian), 1913. "Weitere Werke unter anderem, und andere Die hypothet. Periode im Albanesischen" ("Other works, among other things, and other hypothesis. Period in Albanian"), in Indogerman. Forschungen, vol. 34, 1914, p. 45–208. Volkspoesie der Albaner: eine einführende Studie (Folk poetry of the Albanians: an introductory study), 1917. Nachrr. üb. d. Literar. Komm. (Afterwards the Literary Commission), 1918. Die Regelung d. alban. Rechtschreibung (The scheme of the Albanian spelling), 1918. "Vom Goldenen Horn, Griech. Märchen aus d MA" ("From the Golden Horn, Greek tales of the MA"), in Märchen aus allen Ländern, vol. 9, 1922. "Zwischen Drin u. Vojussa, Alban. Märchen" ("Between Drin and Vjosa, Albanian fairy tale"), in Märchen aus allen Ländern, vol. 10, 1922. Alban. Märchen u. a. Texte d. alban. Folklore (Albanian fairy tales and texts of the Albanian folklore), 1922. Albanien erzählt, Ein Einblick in d. alban. Literature (Albanian recount, and insight into the Albanian literature), 1956. Gjergi Fishta u. d. alban. Heldenepos Lahuta e Malcis (Gjergj Fishta and the Albanian epic Lahuta e Malcis), 1949. Die geflügelte Schwester u. d. Dunklen d. Erde, Alban. Volksmärchen (Winged sister and the dark earth, Albanian folk tales), 1952. Am Rande d. Herdes, Winterabende in d. alban. Kulla (On the edge of the hearth, winter evenings in the Albanian kulla), 1949. "Die Volksepik d. Albaner" ("The folk epic of the Albanians"), in Wiss. Zs. d. Karl-Marx-Univ. Leipzig, vol. 3–4, 1954, pages 55, 243–289; 1955, pages 440–473. Lehrgang des Albanischen. 3 vols., vol. 1: Albanisch-deutsches Wörterbuch; vol. 2: Albanische Chrestomathie; vol. 3: Grammatik der albanischen Sprache. Berlin: Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften 1954; Berlin 1955; Halle/Saale 1959.