Walser German - WikiHQ

Walser German () and Walliser German (, locally ) are a group of Highest Alemannic dialects spoken in parts of Switzerland (Valais, Ticino, Grisons), Italy (Piedmont, Aosta Valley), Liechtenstein (Triesenberg, Planken), and Austria (Vorarlberg).

Usage of the terms Walser and Walliser has come to reflect a difference of geography, rather than language. The term Walser refers to those speakers whose ancestors migrated into other Alpine valleys in medieval times, whereas Walliser refers only to a speaker from Upper Valais – that is, the upper Rhone valley. In a series of migrations during the Late Middle Ages, people migrated out of the Upper Valais, across the higher valleys of the Alps.

History

The Alemannic immigration to the Rhone valley started in the 8th century. There were presumably two different immigration routes, from what is now the Bernese Oberland, that led to two main groups of Walliser dialects.

In the 12th or 13th century, the Walliser began to settle other parts of the Alps. These new settlements are known as Walser migration. In many of these settlements, people still speak Walser.

Because the people who speak Walser German live in the isolated valleys of the high mountains, Walser German has preserved certain archaisms retained from Old High German which were lost in other variants of German.

Distribution and dialects

The total number of speakers in the world estimated at 22,000 speakers (as of 2004), of whom about 10,000 are in Switzerland.

Because the dialect group is quite spread out, there is rarely any contact between the dialects. Therefore, the dialects that compose Walser German are very different from each other as well.

province of Vercelli: Alagna Valsesia, Alto Sermenza, Rimella, Riva Valdobbia
province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola: Formazza, Macugnaga, Ornavasso, Agaro and Salecchio ( of Premia), Ausone, Campello Monti (frazione of Valstrona)
Bernese Oberland: Lauterbrunnen, Mürren, Planalp
Canton of Grisons: Rheinwald, Obersaxen, Vals GR, Signina (Gemeinde Riein, Safiental, Tenna, Valendas, Versam, Tschappina, Avers, Mutten, Schanfigg, upper Landwassertal, Davos, Prättigau
Liechtenstein (probably settled from Prättigau): Triesenberg, Planken
Canton of Ticino: Bosco/Gurin
Canton of St. Gall: Calfeisental, Taminatal
Vorarlberg and Tirol: Großes Walsertal, Kleines Walsertal; Tannberg, Schröcken, Lech and Warth, parts of Steeg in Tirol, Galtür and Ischgl in the Paznauntal, Brand, Bürserberg, Dünserberg, Ebnit, Laternsertal, Damüls, Silbertal
Allgäu: Kleinwalsertal

Phonology

Because the dialects of Walser German are different from each other, it is difficult to make generalizations about the language that apply to all the dialects. This section will be about the Walser German dialect of Formazza, or Pomattertitsch. Pomattertitsch is part of the Highest Alemannic German () dialect group, which is made up of dialects that share similar features. The Highest Alemannic German group contains German dialects of Valais; Walser German dialects in Italy and Ticino; and eastern Walser German dialects in Grisons, Vorarlberg, and Liechtenstein. The first feature that is shared by this group is the palatalization of Middle High German (MHG) -s- to -sch-. This is very typical of Walser German dialects in general. For Pomattertitsch, however, this does not apply to every word that contains -s-: 'son, 'sun', and 'to be'. The second feature is a change from -nk- to -ch- or -h-: German to Pomattertitsch 'think', German to Pomattertitsch 'drink'. The final feature is the lack of diphthongs where they are present in German words: German to Pomattertitsch 'build', German to Pomattertitsch 'snow'.

Vowels

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|+Walser German vowel system

! rowspan="3" |

! colspan="4" | Front

! colspan="2" rowspan="2" | Central

! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |Back

|- class="small"

! colspan="2" | unrounded

! colspan="2" | rounded

|- class="small"

!short

!long

!short

!long

!short

!long

!short

!long

! Close

!Near-close

! Close-mid

! Open-mid

! Open

| ~

The pronunciation of may vary across dialects, being heard as either or as rounded .
Diphthongs may occur as .

Morphology

Again, this section will be about the Walser German dialect Pomattertitsch.

Nouns

Pomattertitsch marks number (singular and plural) and gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) on nouns, like most dialects of German. It also marks case (nominative/accusative, genitive, dative) on nouns, although it has been reduced over time. It also distinguishes between strong and weak nouns.

Table 1 Nouns:

Peter has just now the ball into the goal thrown

'Peter threw the ball into the goal just now'

In some dialects, specifically Gressoney, Formazza, and Rimella, the finite and non-finite verbs occur right next to each other, with the complements and adverbials at the end of the sentence. An example of this in Rimella is given below: which means that Italian is influencing some southern dialects of Walser German.