SCHELLER, Meinrad. Zürich 17.5.1921 — 24.4.1991. Swiss Sanskrit and IE Scholar. Professor in Zürich. Grew up in Zürich. Studies from 1940 at Zürich under M. Leumann, Pokorny and Risch, also in Paris. Ph.D. 1948 (under Leumann). Further studies 1949-51 in Paris, some time also at Prague. In 1951-54 worked for Thesaurus linguae Latinae at Munich, 1954-56 worked on Greek lexicography at Oxford. PD 1956 Zürich. From 1963 ao. Professor at Fribourg, in 1968-75 ord. Professor at Munich and from 1975 the first ord. Professor für allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft at Zürich. Emeritus 1988.

Scheller was a pure linguist. Beside Indology (Sanskrit and Hindi) he had special interest in IE, Greek, Celtic and Slavic and also knew some non-IE languages (Georgian and Turkish). In 1966 he studied Melanesian and Papua languages and Pidgin English in fieldwork in New Guinea. He had lively sense of humour, but was critical towards his own work and published rather little in his later years.

Publications: “Ein weiterer Beleg für Accusativus cum Infinitivo in Sanscrit”, ArO 18:4, 1950, 248-250; “Skt. aṭṭapāla-. Exkurs zu o. Bd. 79, 224ff.”, KZ 80, 1966, 182-198; further articles on Sanskrit in KZ 1976.

– Diss. publ. Die Oxytonierung der griechischen Substantiva auf -ια. 6+156 p. Zürich 1951.

– Hab.diss. Vedisch priyá- und die Wortsippe frei, freien, Freund. Eine bedeutungs­geschichtliche Studie. 127 p. KZ, Erg.heft 16. Göttingen 1959.

– “Hindi āṭā” KZ 79, 1965, 224-238; “Skt. aṭṭapāla-. Exkurs zu o. Bd. 79, 224ff.”, KZ 80, 1966, 182-198; “Lat. onus und ai. ánaḥ”, KZ 89, 1976, 191-197.

– “Das mittelindische Enklitikum se”, KZ 81, 1967, 1-53; articles also on IE, Greek and non-IE languages.

Sources: W. Bisang & P. Rinderknecht (eds.), Von Europa bis Ozeanien – von der Antonymie zum Relativsatz. Gedenkschrift für M.Sch. Zürich 1991 with photo and life by Bisang; briefly H. Adrom, Indogermanistik in München 1826 – 2001. p. 34, with photo; German Wikipedia briefly.