Classical Milanese orthography

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The classical Milanese orthography is the orthography used for the Western Lombard language, in particular for the Milanese dialect, by the major poets and writers of this literature, such as Carlo Porta, Carlo Maria Maggi, Delio Tessa, etc. It was first used in the seventeenth century by Carlo Maria Maggi; Maggi first introduced the trigram oeu, while previous authors, like Bonvesin de la Riva (thirteenth century), used Latinizing orthographies. In 1606 G. A. Biffi with his Prissian de Milan de la parnonzia milanesa began the first codification, incorporating vowel length and the use of ou to represent the sound /œ/. [1] The classical orthography came as a compromise between the old Tuscan system and the French one; the characteristic that considerably differentiates this orthography from the effective pronunciation is the method for the distinction of long and short vowels. As of today, because it has become more archaic, it is often replaced by simpler methods that use signs ö, ü for front rounded vowels and the redoubling of vowels for long vowels. The classical orthography was regularized in the 1990s by the Circolo Filologico Milanese for modern use.

The classical Milanese orthography (as edited by Circolo Filologico Milanese) has the following conventions that differ from the Italian alphabet.

General use of accents: [2]

Pronunciation of vowels and false diphthongs: [2]

Use of consonants: [2]

Table of pronunciation

SignContext IPA Notes
a (à)unstressed, stressed if followed by double consonant, or accented word-finally/a/stress is indicated with grave accent
a (à)elsewhere/ɑː/stress is indicated with grave accent
aaword-finally/ɑː/always stressed
balways/b/devoiced [ p ] word-finally
cfollowed by consonant or by a, o, u/k/
cifollowed by a, o, u//
cfollowed by e, i or word-finally//
chfollowed by e, i or word-finally/k/
dalways/d/devoiced [ t ] word-finally
eunstressed/e/
e (è)followed by double consonant or accented word-finally/ɛ/always stressed; stress is sometimes indicated with grave accent
e (é)elsewhere//always stressed; stress is indicated with acute accent
eeword-finally//always stressed
falways/f/
gfollowed by consonant or by a, o, u/ɡ/
gifollowed by a, o, u//
gfollowed by e, i or word-finally//devoiced [ ] word-finally
ghfollowed by e, i or word-finally/ɡ/devoiced [ k ] word-finally
i (ì)followed by double consonant or accented word-finally/i/stress is indicated with grave accent
ipreceded by consonant and followed by vowel/j/
i (ì)elsewhere//stress is indicated with grave accent
iiword-finally//always stressed
jwhen not preceded by consonant/j/
lalways/l/
mfollowed by consonant/◌̃/
melsewhere/m/
nwhen it doesn't form a vowel with the preceding vowel or word-finally when last syllable is unstressed/n/
nelsewhere/◌̃/
nnword-finally/n/
ostressed in a non-final open syllable//
oelsewhere/u/
ooword-finally//always stressed
òalways/ɔ/always stressed
ôword-finally/u/always stressed
oeufollowed by double consonant/œ/
/ø/
always stressed
oeuelsewhere/œː/
/øː/
always stressed
palways/p/
qualways followed by a vowel other than u//
ralways/r/
sword-finally, followed by voiceless consonant or word-initially/s/
sintervocalic or followed by voiced consonant/z/
scifollowed by a, o, u/ʃ/
scfollowed by e, i or word-finally/ʃ/
s'cifollowed by a, o, u/ s /
s'cfollowed by e, i/ s /
sgifollowed by a, o, u/ʒ/
sgfollowed by e, i/ʒ/
ssbetween vowels/s/
talways/t/
u (ù)followed by double consonant or accented word-finally/y/stress is indicated with grave accent
ubetween q or g and a vowel, or as part of a diphthong/w/never stressed
u (ù)elsewhere//stress is indicated with grave accent
uuword-finally//always stressed
valways/v/
/ʋ/
devoiced [ f ] word-finally
zalways/ts/
/dz/
/s/
/z/
variable; always devoiced [ ts ]/[ s ] word-finally

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References

  1. "Varon Milanes/Prissian de Milan de la parnonzia milanesa - Wikisource". it.wikisource.org (in Italian). Retrieved 2024-01-18.
  2. 1 2 3 Porta, Carlo (1982). Poesie[Poetry] (in Italian) (3 ed.). Milano: Mondadori. pp. LXXIX–LXXXIV. ISBN   88-04-11790-7.