Mortality of the German linguistic isolates of the Western Italian Alps (Walser)

Abstract

For five localities of Western Alps (Val d'Aosta and Piemonte) inhabited by Walser populations (Gressoney-la-Trinité, Gressoney St. Jean, Issime, Macugnaga and Rima) the main features of mortality are described, namely raw death rate, seasonality of deaths, distribution of deaths according to age classes and infant mortality. Death rate is higher than the Italian average value; seasonality of deaths shows some statistically significative differences only in a few decades and does not reach a high significativity. Distribution in age classes shows a rather low mortality at lower ages (0 and 1-4 years) with small changes between the two halves of the 20th century. An exception is constituted by Macugnaga, where an elevated mortality at lower age classes is present in both halves of the century, though higher in the first one. The picture can be considered as not typical of Walser populations. Infant mortality shows great variations in the investigated isolates, but an explication today is impossible. The degree of illiteracy, one of the causes of infant mortality, is rather elevated only at Macugnaga (until 1931). A comparison is made with other German linguistic islands studied so far by one of the two authors (G.M.).