Johann Andreas Schmeller

Johann Andreas Schmeller (6 August 1785 in Tirschenreuth – 27 September 1852 in Munich) was a German philologist who initially studied the Bavarian dialect.

In 1821, he published Die Mundarten Bayerns (Bavarian dialects).

This was later supplemented by his Bayerisches Wörterbuch (Bavarian dictionary), which appeared in four volumes from 1827 to 1837.

Schmeller edited the Old High German Evangelienharmonie (1841);[4] the Muspilli (1832);[5] Lateinische Gedichte des 10. und 11.

[1][6] Schmeller invented the schwa symbol (ə) for use as the reduced vowel at the end of some German words, and first used it in his 1820s works on the Bavarian dialects.