Western Lombard | |
---|---|
Milanes/Milanées, Insubrigh/Insübrich, lumbard ucidental | |
Native to | Italy, Switzerland |
Region | Italy |
Native speakers | unknown [1] |
Dialects | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | – |
Glottolog | west2343 |
Linguasphere | 51-AAA-odd ... 51-AAA-odj |
Western Lombard is a group of dialects of Lombard, a Romance language spoken in Italy. It is widespread 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, the eastern part of the Province of Alessandria (Tortona), a small part of Vercelli (Valsesia), and Switzerland (the Canton of Ticino and part of the Canton of Graubünden). 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"). [2]
In Italian-speaking contexts, Western Lombard is often incorrectly called a dialect of Italian.[ citation needed ] Western Lombard and Standard Italian are very different. [3] Some speakers of Lombard varieties may have difficulty understanding one another and require a standard to communicate, but all Western Lombard varieties are mutually intelligible. [3] Western Lombard is relatively homogeneous (much more so than Eastern Lombard), but it has a number of variations, [4] mainly in relation to the vowels /o/, /ɔ/ and the development of /ts/ into /s/.
Western Lombard has no official status in Lombardy or anywhere else. The only official language in Lombardy is Italian.
The general lines of diachronics of Western Lombard plural declension are drawn here, with reference to Milanese orthography:
Most feminine words end with the inflection -a; the feminine plural is non-inflected (la legora / i legor ; la cadrega / i cadregh). The final vowel keeps its original length (non-final syllables have no difference), which is often long when it is followed by a voiced consonant and short when it is followed by a voiceless consonant. When the stem ends with a particular consonant cluster, there can be the addition of a final -i or of a schwa between consonants (for example: in Milanese sing. scendra, plur. scendr > scender). For adjectives, the plural form and masculine form are often the same.
Most masculine nouns lack inflections, and the plural masculine is always non-inflected (el tramvaj/i tramvaj; el lett/i lett ). When the word stem ends with a particular group of consonants, both singular and plural forms can add a schwa between consonants; otherwise, a final -o (pron. /u/) is added to singular nouns, -i for plurals.
Masculine words ending in -in or, less commonly, in -ett, have plurals in -itt (fiolin/fiolitt). Those ending in -ll have plurals in -j, (el sidell/i sidej ; el porscell/i porscej ; el cavall / i cavaj). The same occurs in the determinate article: singular ell > el, plural elli > ej > i.
Masculine words ending in -a are invariable and are proper nouns, words from Ancient Greek or idiomatic words such as pirla, a derogatory term for a person.
Western Lombard can be divided into four main varieties: lombardo alpino (spoken in the provinces of Sondrio and of Verbania, Sopraceneri of Canton Ticino and Grigioni in Switzerland), lombardo-prealpino occidentale (spoken in the provinces of Como, Varese and Lecco, Lugano and its neighbors in Canton Ticino), basso-lombardo occidentale (Pavia and Lodi), and macromilanese (provinces of Milan, Monza, Novara and Valsesia of Vercelli). The boundaries are obviously schematic, since the political division in provinces and municipalities are usually independent from languages spoken.
Examples of Western Lombard language are:[ citation needed ]
The following information is based on the Milanese dialect: [11]
Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stop/ Affricate | voiceless | p | t | t͡ʃ | k | |
voiced | b | d | d͡ʒ | ɡ | ||
Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | ||
voiced | v | z | ʒ | |||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ( ŋ ) | ||
Rhotic | r | |||||
Approximant | lateral | l | ( ʎ ) | |||
central | j | w |
Front | Central | Back | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Close | i ĩ | y ỹ | u ũ | ||
Close-mid | e ẽ | ||||
Open-mid | ɛ | œ | ɔ | ||
Open | a ã | ɑ | ( ɒ ) |
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.[ citation needed ]
An extensive Western Lombard literature is available. Texts include various dictionaries, a few grammars, and a 2020 translation of the Gospels arranged into an account of the life of Christ. [12]
Rhaeto-Romance, Rheto-Romance, Rhaeto-Italian,or Rhaetian, is a purported subfamily of the Romance languages that is spoken in south-eastern Switzerland and north-eastern Italy. The name "Rhaeto-Romance" refers to the former Roman province of Raetia. The question of whether these languages actually form a subfamily is called the Questione Ladina. The Italian linguist Graziadio Ascoli, writing in 1873, found them to share a number of intricacies and believed they formed a linguistic group. The Rhaeto-Romance languages differ from Italian in their evolution from Latin by having passed through a stage with phonemic vowel length, undergone certain consonant developments, and possibly developed a pair of central rounded vowels. If the subfamily is genuine, three languages would belong to it: Romansh in Switzerland, and Ladin and Friulian in Italy. Their combined number of speakers is about 660,000; the large majority of these speak Friulian.
The Lombard language belongs to the Gallo-Italic group within the Romance languages and is characterized by a Celtic linguistic substratum and a Lombardic linguistic superstratum and is a cluster of homogeneous dialects that are spoken by millions of speakers in Northern Italy and southern Switzerland, including most of Lombardy and some areas of the neighbouring regions, notably the far eastern side of Piedmont and the extreme western side of Trentino, and in Switzerland in the cantons of Ticino and Graubünden. The language is also spoken in Santa Catarina in Brazil by Lombard immigrants from the Province of Bergamo, in Italy.
Milanese is the central variety of the Western dialect of the Lombard language spoken in Milan, the rest of its metropolitan city, and the northernmost part of the province of Pavia. Milanese, due to the importance of Milan, the largest city in Lombardy, is often considered one of the most prestigious Lombard variants and the most prestigious one in the Western Lombard area.
The La Spezia–Rimini Line, for the linguistics of the Romance languages, is a line that demarcates a number of important isoglosses that distinguish Romance languages south and east of the line from Romance languages north and west of it. The line runs through northern Italy, approximately between the cities of La Spezia and Rimini. Romance languages south and east of it include Italian and the Eastern Romance languages, whereas Catalan, French, Occitan, Portuguese, Romansh, Spanish, and the Gallo‒Italic languages are representatives of the Western group. The Sardinian language is not part of either Western or Eastern Romance.
Emilian-Romagnol is a linguistic continuum that is part of the Gallo-Italic languages spoken in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. It is divided into two main varieties, Emilian and Romagnol.
The Ticinese dialect is the set of dialects, belonging to the Alpine and Western branch of the Lombard language, spoken in the northern part of the Canton of Ticino (Sopraceneri); the dialects of the region can generally vary from valley to valley, often even between single localities, while retaining the mutual intelligibility that is typical of the Lombard linguistic continuum.
The Gallo-Italic, Gallo-Italian, Gallo-Cisalpine or simply Cisalpine languages constitute the majority of the Romance languages of northern Italy: Piedmontese, Lombard, Emilian, Ligurian, and Romagnol. In central Italy they are spoken in the northern Marches ; in southern Italy in some language islands in Basilicata and Sicily.
Eastern Lombard grammar reflects the main features of Romance languages: the word order of Eastern Lombard is usually SVO, nouns are inflected in number, adjectives agree in number and gender with the nouns, verbs are conjugated in tenses, aspects and moods and agree with the subject in number and person. The case system is present only for the weak form of the pronoun.
Imbersago is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Lecco in the Italian region Lombardy, located in the Brianza traditional area about 35 kilometres (22 mi) northeast of Milan and about 15 kilometres (9 mi) south of Lecco.
Brianzöö or Brianzoeu is a group of variants of the Western variety of the Lombard language, spoken in the region of Brianza.
Canzés is a variety of Brianzöö spoken in the commune of Canzo, Italy.
Eastern Lombard is a group of closely related variants of Lombard, a Gallo-Italic language spoken in Lombardy, mainly in the provinces of Bergamo, Brescia and Mantua, in the area around Cremona and in parts of Trentino. Its main variants are Bergamasque and Brescian.
Bustocco and Legnanese are two dialects of Western Lombard, spoken respectively in the cities of Busto Arsizio and Legnano, Lombardy.
This article discusses the grammar of the Western Lombard (Insubric) language. The examples are in Milanese, written according to the Classical Milanese orthography.
Cremonese (Cremunés) is a dialect of the Western Lombard dialect group spoken in the city and province of Cremona in Lombardy, Italy, with the exception of Crema and the area of Soresina, where an Eastern Lombard dialect is spoken, and the area of Casalmaggiore, where a form of Emilian closely related to Parmigiano is spoken.
Comasco or Comasque is a dialect belonging to the Western branch of Lombard language, spoken in the city and suburbs of Como. Comasco is part of the Comasco-Lecchese dialect group.
Emilian is a Gallo-Italic unstandardised language spoken in the historical region of Emilia, which is now in the western part of Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy.
Romagnol is a Romance language spoken in the historical region of Romagna, consisting mainly of the southeastern part of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The name is derived from the Lombard name for the region, Romagna. Romagnol is also spoken outside the region, particularly in the independent Republic of San Marino. Romagnol is classified as endangered because older generations have "neglected to pass on the dialect as a native tongue to the next generation".
Lombard nationalism is a nationalist, but primarily regionalist, movement active primarily in Lombardy, Italy. It seeks more autonomy or even independence from Italy for Lombardy and, possibly, all the lands that are linguistically or historically Lombard. During the 1990s, it was strictly connected with Padanian nationalism.
Cremish or Cremasque, is an Eastern Lombard dialect spoken in the Cremasque Territory of the Province of Cremona, where Cremonese is spoken in the rest of the land except for Soresina and the aforementioned land. The dialect is slowly dying, as younger people don't use it as much anymore.