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

Enrico Rizzi
Rima. In the Grison Cantons too literary efforts date back to the previous century. Valentin
Bühler, a judge from Davos, collected popular songs and proverbs, besides giving us the
first dictionary and grammar of his language. Along with him should be remembered
Georg Fent, Hans Valär and Christian Tester. Johann Joseph Jörger was the author of short
stories and tales. A small cohort of local poets and tale-tellers is still at work both in
Switzerland and in Italy. Too many the books on either sides of the Alps to be mentioned
here. The best collection from the Grison Cantons is Walservolch (1974). Anna Maria
Bacher, a poetess, spanned over all borders with her poetry. Valentin Curta bore witness
to history and traditions in Gressoney, Hans Maria Sartori did the same for Bosco Gurin,
Giovanni Giordani gave us a dictionary and tales from Alagna while Johann Rudolf
Stoffel from Avers also supplied tales. Ancient legends and stories were handed down by
Formazza’s Antonio Ferrera. Toponymy is a rich source for the knowledge of this language.
The best work is by Paul Zinsli. Local singing and popular theatre are also a rich
source of linguistic knowledge and lore. Apollonia Sartori gave us an entire collection of
songs in 1889. The interest for the language and culture of the Walsers dates back to the
Renaissance. It was Swiss scholars who first brought public attention to this culture at the
time of the Reformation. Bishop Carlo Bescapé from Novara remarked that somewhere up
on the Alps they spoke a strange Germanic language. The notion it came from Swiss Wallis
worked it way through very slowly. Horace Bénédict de Saussure paid a visit to the villages
around Mount Rosa in the aftermath of the French Revolution and he had no doubts as
from whence the Walsers came. Linguists followed suit, first Albert Schott and then Joseph
Bergmann. Finally William Augustus Brevoort Coolidge. In Italy it was above all Aristide
Baragiola who studied the language and folklore and the Walsers from Formazza. A
major testimonial to the Walser language is the “Schweizerisches Idiotikon. Wörterbuch
der schweizerdeutschen Sprache”. Peter Liver, a law professor from Bern, studied Walser
law throughout the centuries. Paul Zinsli, also a Bern professor, gave us his fundamental
Walservolkstum. Additional works were created by Marco Baeun, Gertrud Frey, Emily
Gerstner-Hirzel, Peter Zurrer, Max Weibel and Kurt Wanner.
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