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

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Monica Valenti<br />

congiunzioni siano gli elementi con il maggior numero di occorrenze in<br />

tutti i parlanti. A seguire si trovano i sostantivi, verbi, aggettivi ed infine<br />

fenomeni transitori, legati al concetto di commutazione di codice.<br />

Concludendo vorrei sottolineare l’importanza di effettuare studi anche<br />

nell’ambito dei Walser su corpus di analisi ampi in modo da soppesare le<br />

conclusioni e le considerazioni possibili con una quantità considerevole<br />

di prove. Nel caso dei fenomeni di contatto si risolve, utilizzando la frequenza<br />

d’uso, il problema metodologico presente per la definizione di ciò<br />

che è inserito nel sistema ricevente e ciò che è più un elemento transitorio.<br />

***<br />

Linguistic, sociolinguistic research and initiatives in <strong>the</strong> Walser community <strong>of</strong><br />

Formazza. I will report on some recent studies on <strong>the</strong> linguistic situation in <strong>the</strong><br />

Formazza valley. At <strong>the</strong> same time I would like to speak about some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> initiatives stemming<br />

from <strong>the</strong> renewed interest in language minorities and research connected <strong>the</strong>reto.<br />

One <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> most important contributions is <strong>the</strong> work by Angela Bacher on toponyms in<br />

<strong>the</strong> Formazza valley. This scholar, a native <strong>of</strong> this valley, ga<strong>the</strong>red as many as 1051 place<br />

names which make up a hefty heritage when it comes to <strong>the</strong> culture and traditions <strong>of</strong> this<br />

valley. Ano<strong>the</strong>r important work is <strong>the</strong> dictionary by Pio Scilligo which houses some 60,500<br />

words drawn from his own personal heritage. Scholars like Silvia Dal Negro have supplied<br />

us with important sociolinguistic studies. She studied <strong>the</strong> Walser dialect from <strong>the</strong> point <strong>of</strong><br />

view <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> decline and death <strong>of</strong> a language, applying <strong>the</strong> same principles used by Nancy<br />

Dorian on <strong>the</strong> death <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> East Su<strong>the</strong>rland Gaelic. From Dal Negro’s research emerge<br />

three different patterns <strong>of</strong> erosion: 1) <strong>the</strong> uniform pattern, 2) <strong>the</strong> contiguous pattern, 3)<br />

<strong>the</strong> non-contiguous pattern. <strong>The</strong> non-contiguous relationship with German-speaking<br />

communities north <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Alpine</strong> range brought about a lexicon erosion and <strong>the</strong> convergence<br />

with <strong>the</strong> dominant language. Dialect was sidelined. Yet <strong>the</strong>re appears to persist a<br />

sort <strong>of</strong> “formal allegiance”. Particularly interesting appears to be <strong>the</strong> future <strong>of</strong> cultural<br />

and linguistic studies in this valley. Here a recent initiative involved <strong>the</strong> entire community.<br />

It is <strong>the</strong> setting up <strong>of</strong> a voice archive. <strong>The</strong> project was carried out by Silvia Dal Negro<br />

and <strong>the</strong> Formazza community in 2002/2003. It comprises some 30 hours <strong>of</strong> sound track<br />

which is at present being printed. <strong>The</strong>y are semi-guided conversations, loose from any<br />

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