Western Lombard Language Information
Western Lombard is a Romance language spoken in Italy, in the Lombard provinces of Milan, Monza, Varese, Como, Lecco, Sondrio, a small part of Cremona (except Crema and its neighbours), Lodi and Pavia, and the Piedmont provinces of Novara, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola and a small part of Vercelli (Valsesia), and Switzerland (Canton Ticino and part of Grischun). After the name of the region involved, land of the former Duchy of Milan, this language is often referred to as Insubric (see Insubria and Insubres) or Milanese, or, after Clemente Merlo, Cisabduano (literally "of this side of Adda River").
In Italian-speaking contexts, Western Lombard is often called a dialect of Italian; but as there is no generally accepted definitions of "language" and "dialect" an alternative view is that it is a separate language, not a dialect. Western Lombard and Italian are only partly mutually intelligible, due to various lexical, phonetic, and grammatical differences. Western Lombard is relatively homogenous (much more so than Eastern Lombard language), though it does present a number of variations,[2] mainly in relation to the vowels /o/, /ɔ/ and the development of /ts/ into /s/.
Western Lombard can be divided into four main varieties, referred by many Italian linguists
- Milanese or Meneghin (macromilanese)
- Bustocco and Legnanese
- Brianzöö (lombardo-prealpino occidentale - macromilanese)
- Monzese
- Comasco-Lecchese (lombardo-prealpino occidentale)
- Comasco
- Laghée
- Intelvese
- Vallassinese
- Lecchese
- Valsassinese
- Ticinese (lombardo alpino)
- Varesino or Bosin (lombardo-prealpino occidentale)
- Alpine Lombard (lombardo alpino, strong influence from Eastern Lombard language)
- Valtellinese
- Chiavennasco
- Southwestern Lombard (basso-lombardo occidentale)
- Pavese (strong influence from Emiliano-Romagnolo language)
- Lodigiano
- Nuaresat (lombardo-prealpino occidentale - macromilanese)
- Cremunéez (strong influence from Emiliano-Romagnolo language
The most important orthography in Western Lombard literature is the Classical Milanese orthography. It was used by Carlo Porta (1775–1821) and Delio Tessa (1886–1939). It was perfected by the Circolo Filologico di Milano. Other orthographies are the Ticinese, the Comasca, the Bosina, the Nuaresat, and the Lecchese.
See also
- Languages of Italy
- Dialects of Italy
- Plural inflection in Western Lombard
- Milanese
- Insubric literature
References
- ^ While an upper bound to the number of speakers lies around 2,500,000,
- ^ Gian Battista Pellegrini, Carta dei dialetti d'Italia, Pacini, Pisa, 1977.
Bibliography
- Andrea Rognoni, Grammatica dei dialetti della Lombardia, Oscar Mondadori, 2005.
- AA. VV., Parlate e dialetti della Lombardia. Lessico comparato, Mondadori, Milano 2003.
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