WALSERSPRACHE - The four main objectives of the Alpine Space ...

Volmar Schmid
3/4 of the people speak French, has practically no lobby. So when one busies himself with
Walliserdeutsch or one of the local dialects, he does it out of personal, scientific or cultural
grounds, since there is no official and steady support to research Walliserdeutsch. Yet
Walliserdeutsch is the original or starting language for all Walserdeutsch dialects. As a matter
of fact, a lot of differences and peculiarities which we find in Walser dialects south of
the Alps is already extant in Walliserdeutsch, to start with. So, if we want to explain the
peculiarities of Walser dialects on the whole, it is to Swiss Walser language we must go back
to. First, however, we must circumscribe our own home turf well. If one deals with South
Walsers or with Vals and their Rhaeto-Romanic neighbours, the case is not too complex. It
gets a lot more intricate in the instance of Walsers living side by side with populations speaking
a German dialect. To that end we use the phonetic and grammatical differences between
Walliserdeutsche and Swiss German or German dialects in the Voralberg region. I
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