Are ethnic minorities synonymous for genetic isolates? Comparing Walser and Romance populations in the Upper Lys Valley (Western Alps).

Cultural differences between neighbouring populations are often said to give rise to reproductive barriers. For ethnic minorities, these barriers can easily result in genetic isolation. In this study, we analyse the surname structure of the Walser of the upper Lys Valley, a German-speaking ethnic minority in the Italian Western Alps, to better understand the relationships between linguistic and genetic isolation. Analyses were based on 1713 marriages registered from 1838 to 1938 in four villages of the valley: three Walser communities (Issime, Gressoney-Saint-Jean, Gressoney-La-Trinité) and the Romance community of Gaby. The results show that endogamy and inbreeding are lower than in other Italian linguistic minorities, with the exception of Gaby, whose values rank among the highest ever found in Italy. Compared to the Walser communities' Gaby behaves as an outgroup and has an almost exclusively autochthonous surname set. The latter aspect is also true, but to a lesser extent, for the Walser villages, in particular for Issime on the one hand and Gressoney-Saint-Jean and Gressoney-La-Trinité on the other. These findings strongly suggest that the Walser communities' ethnic minority status is not associated with genetic isolation, whereas genetic isolation was found in the linguistically non-isolated Gaby. Finally, our results are consistent with two independent late medieval migration events at the origin of these Walser settlements.