Western Lombard dialects
Group of Lombard dialects From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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]
 |
| 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-odj 51-AAA-odd ... 51-AAA-odj |
Western Lombard and Italian
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.
Grammar
Summarize
Perspective
The general lines of diachronics of Western Lombard plural declension are drawn here, with reference to Milanese orthography:
Feminine
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.
Masculine
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.
Varieties
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Perspective
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]
- Milanese or Meneghin (macromilanese)
- Bustocco and Legnanese
- Brianzöö (lombardo-prealpino occidentale - macromilanese)
- Monzese
- Comasco-Lecchese (lombardo-prealpino occidentale)
- Comasco
- Laghée
- Intelvese
- Vallassinese
- Lecchese
- Valsassinese
- Ossolano
- Varesino or Bosin (lombardo-prealpino occidentale)
- Alpine Lombard (lombardo alpino, influence from Ladin)[5]
- Valtellinese
- Chiavennasco
- Ticinese (lombardo alpino) (influence from Ladin)[6]
- Southwestern Lombard (basso-lombardo occidentale)
- Slangs
Phonology
The following information is based on the Milanese dialect:[11]
Consonants
- [ŋ] occurs only as a nasal sound before velar stops.
- The central approximant sounds /j w/ are mainly heard as allophones of /i u/ when preceding vowels.
- [ʎ] is not typically pronounced, and only occurs in a few words from Italian.
Vowels
- A double vowel aa is pronounced as [ɑː] or [ɒː]. /a/ may also be pronounced as [ɑ].
Orthography
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]
Literature
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Perspective
Literature in Western Lombard had its first flowering with the Milanese Pietro da Barsegapè and the Cremonese Girard Pateg in the 13th century. Almost contemporaneous with them was Uguccione da Lodi, author of the so-called Libro, a poem of 702 verses on the creation of the world, the pains of hell, and a range of moral issues.
Better known are the writers of the second half of the century, most notably Bonvesin da la Riva. A teacher of grammar, he composed various works in Latin and in the vulgar tongue. The best known of his writings is the Liber di Tre Scricciur, a poem pervaded with an ascetic spirit and in which he treats of human life and the twelve pains of Hell (Scrittura negra), of the Passion of Christ (Scrittura rossa), and of the death of the just man and of the twelve joys of Paradise (Scrittura dorata).
In the late fifteenth century Western Lombard literature begins to take shape, with poets like Andrea Marone (1474-1527) and Lancino Curti (1460-1512). One of the most interesting Western Lombard works of the Renaissance is the collection of poems Rabisch (“Arabesque") published in 1589 by the Milanese painter and literary theorist Gian Paolo Lomazzo. Written in an invented language modeled on the rural dialects of the Lombard valleys, the collection is characterised by an eccentric narrative including exotic animals, grotesque figures and fantastic creatures.
More realistic portrayals of the plebeian condition found their way into the Canzoni composed by the poète maudit Fabio Varese (c. 1570-1630) in the early seventeenth century; they were published only recently, after a long period of a moralistically motivated emargination.[12] At the same time Western Lombard dialects began to be used in the theatre, first by the Arcadian Francesco de Lemene (1634-1704) – his play La sposa Francesca is of particular interest – then in the works of the first dialect protagonist, Carlo Maria Maggi. His bilingual poetry and theatre contributed to elevating the dialect production in Milanese to an unprecedented level. Indeed, the seriousness of his moral engagement is not easily paralleled in the contemporaneous literary canon in standard, and his linguistic experimentalism is highly original, moving from a horizontal dialect plurilingualism in Il barone di Birbanza to the vertical social linguistic stratification of his later plays.
Maggi's dialect plays celebrate the special quality of Milanese as a language, which is described in Concorso de' Meneghini as clear and unaffected, and which ‘seems as if it had been made on purpose just to tell the truth’ (‘che apposta la pär fä / par dì la veritä’). They also construct the long-lasting archetypal Milanese character, Meneghino, the long-suffering, sensible, no-nonsense plebeian servant, and create an image of the ‘verzee’, the main vegetable market in Milan, which is portrayed in the Barone di Birbanza as the place where the most truthful and spontaneous expression of the culture of the Milanese populace is to be found.
The eighteenth century is rich in satirical poetry, with Domenico Balestrieri and Carlo Antonio Tanzi (1710-1762) as its major figures. This is also the time of intense linguistic debates raging between detractors and supporters of the dialects.
Milanese dialect poetry flourished in the early 19th century with such authors as Carlo Porta and Tommaso Grossi. Of particular importance are Porta's lengthy poems and sonnets, from the works belonging to the period of enlightenment such as I desgrazzi de Giovannin Bongee, to the grandiose social Romanticist portraits of La Ninetta del Verzee, Lament del Marchionn di gamb avert, and La nomina del cappellan. All these poems highlight the world of the humble and depraved, and are impregnated by the new European quest for human rights. At a time of strong anti-dialect sentiments among some of the literary elite, the dialects became the medium of some of the best works. More specifically, recent scholarship claims a strong linguistic and poetic influence of Porta's poetry on Manzoni's The Betrothed.
The late nineteenth century produced dialect comedies, such as those by Edoardo Ferravilla (1846-1916) and Carlo Bertolazzi (1870-1916). In the twentieth century , along with the gradual decline in their spoken use, the dialects became poetic languages: Delio Tessa and Franco Loi are considered by many as some of the most important Italian dialect poets of our century.
An extensive Western Lombard literature is available today. Texts include various dictionaries, a few grammars, and a 2020 translation of the Gospels arranged into an account of the life of Christ.[13]
See also
References
Bibliography
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