Diachronic Perspectives on a Rich Linguistic Repertoire
Translations of the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Walser German Varieties
Abstract
The translations of the Parable of the Prodigal Son are an invaluable source for documenting the Walser German varieties spoken in northwestern Italy. This article examines in detail the varieties spoken in the two islands of Aosta Valley, respectively in Gressoney and Issime, based on a number of structural features that can be easily gleaned from old and more recent translations. This significant amount of data allows us to observe significant differences between the two varieties that cannot be explained as the result of common convergence processes with the dominant varieties of the multilingual repertoire of the speakers living in these villages. While we observe clear cases of language attrition in Gressoney, the structural profile of the Issime variety is the result of a creoloidization process that can be traced back to centuries of intra‑societal bilingualism.
open access | peer reviewed
Presentato: 18 Settembre 2025 | Accettato: 20 Ottobre 2025 | Pubblicato 10 Febbraio 2026 | Lingua: en
Keywords Syntax • Language Contact • Multilingualism • Language attrition • Linguistic islands
Copyright © 2026 Livio Gaeta. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-995-5/002