Walser German

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.

There were presumably two different immigration routes, from what is now the Bernese Oberland, that led to two main groups of Walliser dialects.

[4] The dialect of the Lötschental, for instance, preserved three distinct classes of weak verbs until the beginning of the 20th century.

[3] Walser German is part of the Highest Alemannic group, most closely related to dialects spoken in the Bernese Oberland and in Central Switzerland (Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Glarus).

There is limited mutual intelligibility with High Alemannic forms of Swiss German (whose speakers are called Üsserschwyzer "outer Swiss" by the Walliser), and barely any mutual intelligibility with Standard German.

Walser German is most commonly but not exclusively used in private and familial settings when no non-speakers are present.

Pomattertitsch marks number (singular and plural) and gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) on nouns, like most dialects of German.

Table 1 Nouns:[4] Pomattertitsch has definite (English 'the') and indefinite (English 'a') articles that agree in case, number, and gender with the noun: Table 2 Definite Articles:[4] Table 3 Indefinite Articles:[4] Adjectives also agree in number, and gender with the noun it is modifying in Pomattertitsch.

On the other hand, the future tense is expressed morphologically by adding the particle de at the end of an inflected verb and after enclitic pronouns, if there are any in the sentence.

[4] The passive is expressed in Pomattertitsch by using the auxiliary cho 'come' followed by the past participle of the verb, which agrees in gender and number with the subject of the sentence: der salam chun röwä gässä 'salami is eaten raw'.

The causative is expressed using tö 'do' followed by the agent of the caused event, then the preposition z (separate word, not morpheme), and then the infinitive: und töt ds metjie z ässä 'and he makes the girl eat'.

The second form is used for the conditional mood, where the conjunction wenn 'if' can be omitted without changing the meaning of the sentence.

For some dialects, however, there is a change occurring in the word order of verbal brace constructions.

An example of this in Rimella is given below:[8] de pappa òn d mamma hein gmacht ds chriz dem chénn the father and the mother have made the cross to the child 'The father and mother made a cross for the child' This is a change from SOV (subject, object, verb) to SVO word order.

Ich wiss nöit ol z'is heji... Ischt gsinh aschuan d'oaltu, un d'ketschu, gmachut a schian ketschu in z'Überlann.

Méin pappa ischt gsinh la déscendance, dschéin pappa, aschuan méin oalten atte, ischt gsinh aschuan doa .. Vitor van z'Überlann.

Eer het dschi gwéibut das s'het kheen sekschuvöfzg joar un het kheen zwia wetti das .. zwienu sén gsinh gmannutu un zwianu sén nöit gsinh gmannutu.

Bilingual road signs (French - Töitschu) in Issime - Éischeme , Aosta Valley.