 In 1870, Schuchardt was promoted to professor ('habilitation') at the University of Leipzig, and in 1873, he became professor of Romance philology at the University of Halle, which was then a stronghold of the neogrammarians.Meanwhile, Schuchardt primarily worked on traditional topics in Romance philology with a strong historic orientation but also developed an interest in language contact and language mixing (as found in mixed languages and creole languages).In 1876, Schuchardt became chair for Romance Philology at the University of Graz, with the help of Johannes Schmidt.