The
Walliser German (
Walliserdeutsch in
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
) is a group of
Highest AlemannicHighest Alemannic is a branch of Alemannic dialects and belongs to the German language, even though mutual intelligibility with Standard German and other non-Alemannic German dialects is very limited....
dialectThe term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by scholars of language. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other...
s spoken in
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
, specifically in the German-speaking part of the Canton of
WallisThe Valais is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton is one of the drier parts of Switzerland in its central Rhône valley...
(in
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
:
Valais), in the uppermost
RhôneThe Rhone is one of the major rivers of Europe, originating in Switzerland and running from there through the south-eastern corner of France...
valley. (The lower part of this canton is French-speaking; see
Canton ValaisThe Valais is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton is one of the drier parts of Switzerland in its central Rhône valley...
.)
The German-speaking immigration to the Wallis started in the 8th century from the canton of Bern. There were presumably two different immigration routes that lead to two main groups of Walliser dialects.
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The
Walliser German (
Walliserdeutsch in
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
) is a group of
Highest AlemannicHighest Alemannic is a branch of Alemannic dialects and belongs to the German language, even though mutual intelligibility with Standard German and other non-Alemannic German dialects is very limited....
dialectThe term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by scholars of language. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other...
s spoken in
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
, specifically in the German-speaking part of the Canton of
WallisThe Valais is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton is one of the drier parts of Switzerland in its central Rhône valley...
(in
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
:
Valais), in the uppermost
RhôneThe Rhone is one of the major rivers of Europe, originating in Switzerland and running from there through the south-eastern corner of France...
valley. (The lower part of this canton is French-speaking; see
Canton ValaisThe Valais is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton is one of the drier parts of Switzerland in its central Rhône valley...
.)
The German-speaking immigration to the Wallis started in the 8th century from the canton of Bern. There were presumably two different immigration routes that lead to two main groups of Walliser dialects. In the 12th or 13th century, the Walliser began to settle other parts of the
alpsThe Alps are one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east; through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany; to France in the west....
. These new settlements are known as
WalserThe Walser are German-speaking people who live in the Alps of Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein and Austria. The Walser people are named after the Wallis , the uppermost Rhône River valley...
migration. In many of these settlements, people still speak Highest Alemannic dialects, known as
Walser GermanThe Walser language, in German Walserdeutsch, is a group of Highest Alemannic dialects spoken in Walser settlements in parts of Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, and Austria....
.
The Walliser dialects are difficult to understand for other Swiss German people (called
Üsserschwyzer 'outer Swiss' by the Walliser). This is because in the isolated valleys of the high mountains, Walliser German has preserved many archaisms. The dialect of the
LötschentalThe Lötschental is the largest valley on the northern side of the Rhône valley in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. It lies in the Bernese Alps, with the river Lonza running down the length of the valley from its source within the Langgletscher....
, for instance, preserved three distinct classes of weak verbs until the beginning of the 20th century. Walliser German also shows linguistic innovations, such as the plural
Tannu - Tannä (fir - firs), also found in the other Highest Alemannic dialects. In addition, the pronunciation of words with 'ch' is extremely rough and sounds as though the throat is constantly being cleared.
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