Rohlfs was born in
Lichterfelde in
Berlin. His main interest was the languages and dialects spoken in
Southern Italy and he traveled extensively in this region. He studied
Italiot Greek (a language still spoken in
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 (
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 (, 1949–1954). He received honorary degrees from the
University of Calabria in
Cosenza and the
University of Salento in
Lecce. He died in
Tübingen. == Selected works ==