The piccolo atlante linguistico dei walser meridionali. methodological notes

In this paper we introduce to the public a new linguistic atlas, PALWaM (the Little Linguistic Atlas of the Southern Walser). The atlas is peculiar for several reasons. first of all, it focusses on the non contiguous territory of the Southern Walser, a group of Highest Alemannic dialects spoken in Piedmont and Aosta Valley, previously surveyed as part of the wider Sprachatlas der Deutschen Schweiz. Secondly, it is the product of the unprecedented collaboration of both an academic scientific committee and a working group made up of speakers of the local varieties and of members of the cultural associations on the territory. Finally, from a methodological point of view, the atlas places side by side a classical descriptive chart, an interpretative chart, an etymological-historical commentary and fragments of ethnographic interviews. These features make PALWaM a rather little, but very rich linguistic atlas.