Abstract
This contribution tries to overcome some of the intrinsic difficulties of studying linguistic enclaves in the perspective of inter-dialectal variation. Taking up the case of German as a minority language in Italy, a variety of dialects have been compared to each other and to the standard language in order to detect patterns of linguistic continuity and discontinuity and to measure reciprocal distance on the basis of grammatical features. Sociolinguistic factors such as isolation, presence or absence of the roof-language in the linguistic repertoire and language contact have been considered and judged relevant in defining the “insular” or “areal” nature of a group of German minority dialects.