Milanese (milanes, milanées, meneghin, meneghìn) is a variety of Western Lombard spoken in the city of Milan and in its province. Current distribution of Human Language Families A language family is a group of related languages said to have descended from a common proto-language. ... The Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related languages and dialects [1], including most of the major languages of Europe, as well as many spoken in the Indian subcontinent (South Asia), the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), and Central Asia. ... The Italic subfamily is a member of the Centum branch of the Indo-European language family. ... The Romance languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, comprise all languages that descended from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. ... The Gallo-Romance branch of Romance languages includes French, Oïl languages, Catalan, and Occitan, among other languages. ... The term Lombard refers to a group of related dialects spoken mainly in Northern Italy (most of Lombardy and some areas of neighbouring regions), in Southern Switzerland (Ticino and Graubünden). ... Western Lombard (Insubric) is a Lombard language variety spoken in Italy and Switzerland (Canton Ticino). ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... The term Lombard refers to a group of related dialects spoken mainly in Northern Italy (most of Lombardy and some areas of neighbouring regions), in Southern Switzerland (Ticino and Graubünden). ... Not to be confused with the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of the sounds of human speech. ... Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ... This chart shows concisely the most common way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is applied to represent the English language. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A variety of a language is a form that differs from other forms of the language systematically and coherently. ... Western Lombard (Insubric) is a Lombard language variety spoken in Italy and Switzerland (Canton Ticino). ... Milan (Italian: ; Lombard: Milán (listen)) is one of the biggest cities in Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. ...

In Italian-speaking contexts, Milanese (like most of the other non-Italian language varietes spoken within the borders of the Italian Republic) is often generically called a "dialect". This is often incorrectly understood as to mean a dialect of Italian, which actually is not the case. Milanese and Italian are different languages and are not mutually intelligible. Milanese is a particular (and prestigious) Western Lombard variety and is intelligible to speakers of other neighbouring Western Lombard varieties. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language characteristic of a particular group of the languages speakers. ... Western Lombard (Insubric) is a Lombard language variety spoken in Italy and Switzerland (Canton Ticino). ... Western Lombard (Insubric) is a Lombard language variety spoken in Italy and Switzerland (Canton Ticino). ...

Like all other dialects of Western Lombard, Milanese is a Western Romance language related to French, Romansh and Italian. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος) is a variant, or variety, of a language spoken in a certain geographical area. ... Western Lombard (Insubric) is a Lombard language variety spoken in Italy and Switzerland (Canton Ticino). ... The Romance languages, also called Romanic languages, are a subfamily of the Italic languages, specifically the descendants of the Vulgar Latin dialects spoken by the common people evolving in different areas after the break-up of the Roman Empire. ... Romansh (also spelled Rumantsch, Romansch or Romanche) is any of the various Rhaetian languages spoken in Switzerland. ...

However, the use of Milanese is mostly limited to familiar terms and sentences, and is rarely spoken amongst Milan inhabitants.

Various dictionaries, a few grammar books, an extensive literature and a recent translation of the Gospels are available. For the genre of Christian-themed music, see gospel music. ...

Orthography

Partly because of the unofficial status of Milanese, several different orthographic conventions have developed.

The oldest still in use, and probably the most widely used, is the convention adopted by the Milanese writer Carlo Porta. Typical of this system is the trigraph oeu for the vowels /ø/ and /œ/. Statue of Carlo Porta. ...

More recent conventions often try to

• simplify the rules (which are sometimes not very immediate in the Porta system)
• make correct reading of Milanese easier for native Italian speakers
• reduce the gap between the written forms of Milanese and of other Lombard dialects

A lot of the alternative systems use ü and ö instead of u and oeu, in order to avoid confusion between Milanese and Italian vowels. They also generally reduce the number of accents involved, often removing ^.

A comparison with Italian

There are few differences between standard Italian and Milanese syntaxes that have to be considered. The comparison is made quite natural by the fact that Milanese speakers are usually also speakers of Italian. Not to be confused with the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... For other uses, see Syntax (disambiguation). ...

• More vowels are found in Milanese than there are in Italian. In particular, Milanese adds /ø/, /y/ and others; moreover, vowel length plays a role in Milanese.
• While almost every Italian word of more than one syllable ends in a vowel, consonant endings are extremely common in Milanese. A consequence is that many words that are paroxytone in Italian become oxytone in Milanese.
• While most Italian subject pronouns derive directly from their Latin counterparts, subject pronouns in Milanese derive from Latin dative pronouns. This makes Milanese subject pronouns resemble Italian object/dative pronouns: mi (Italian mi), ti (Italian ti), lu (Italian lui), lee (Italian lei), numm (Italian noi), viálter (Italian voi), lór (Italian loro).
• Subject pronouns are doubled in the 2nd and 3rd persons singular. Singular "you are" (Italian tu sei) becomes ti te seet in Milanese; here the first ti is the actual subject pronoun (which is optional), while the second te, normally a dative pronoun, is used to reinforce the subject and is compulsory (it's interesting to mention that the -t suffix of the 2nd person of verbs also derives from Latin "te", for a notable total of three subject pronouns per verb).
• The negation is postponed after the verb. This means that where Italian has non sei for "you are not", Milanese allows either of ti te seet no or ti te seet minga. Minga is an alternative negational adverb (probably derived from the Latin word mica, meaning "crumb"), various forms of which are common in other Italian dialects and even Italian itself, where non <verb> mica is common slang for reinforcing negations. Also consider French pas and Tuscan punto for examples of negations made by using words that all designate "something small" generically. Statistically, minga and no are about equally as common in Milanese, and they are usually interchangeable, although a Milanese speaker will sometimes find that one "sounds better" in a sentence than the other.

Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. ... A syllable (Ancient Greek: ) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. ... Paroxytone is a linguistic term for a word with stress on the penultimate syllable, that is, the syllable before the last syllable, , the English word canasta. ... In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun phrase. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... Negation (i. ... It has been suggested that Verbal agreement be merged into this article or section. ... An adverb is not a part of speech. ... The Tuscan dialect is a dialect spoken in Tuscany, Italy. ...

Sample texts

In the word calson /kal'sữː/ 'trousers', phonetically speaking, you can see the adesinential plural, the use of u and not of o, the nazalization and lenghtening of u, the transformation of z into s, the not-mutation of a in front of l.

From the Bible, Luke 2, 1-7 (for an English version see http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=luke+2) This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library of Congress. ...

You can listen to a rendition of this text as recorded by an Italian native speaker from Milan (compare to the same text in Italian).

Original orthography

Very close to the traditional orthography.

2:1 In chi dì là, on decrett de Céser Augùst l'ordinava che se fasess on censiment de tutta la terra. 2 Sto primm censiment l'è staa faa quand Quirini l'era governador de la Siria. 3 Tucc andaven a fass registrà, ciaschedun in la soa città. 4 Anca Giusepp, che l'era de la cà e de la famiglia de David, da la città de Nazareth e da la Galilea l'è andaa sù in Giudea a la città de David, ciamada Betlemm, 5 per fass registrà insèma a Maria, soa sposa, che l'era incinta. 6 Ben, pròppi intanta che se trovaven in quell sit, s'hinn compii per lee i dì de partorì. 7 L'ha mettuu al mond el sò primm, l'ha faa sù in di fass e l'ha miss giò in d'ona gruppia perchè gh'era minga de post per lor in la locanda. (Circolo Filologico Milanese, I Quatter Vangeli de Mattee, March, Luca e Gioann in dialett milanes, Milan 1995)

Alternative orthography

The same text in an alternative orthography, which could be used to render all Lombard varieties. Long vowels (both phonologically and phonetically long) are written double, word-internal consonants are never doubled (in accordance with pronunciation), and final devoicing of obstruents is rendered orthographically.

2:1 In chi dí lá, un decrètt de Céser August l'urdinava che se fasèss un censiméent de tüta la tèra. 2 Stu primm censiméent l'è staa faa quaant Quirini l'éra guvernaduur de la Siria. 3 Tücc andaven a fass registrá, ciaschedün in la súa citá. 4 Anca Giüsèpp, che l'éra de la cá e de la famíglia de Davit, da la citá de Názareth e da la Galiléa l'è andaa sü in Giüdéa a la citá de Davit, ciamada Betlèmm, 5 per fass registrá insèma a María, súa spusa, che l'éra incinta. 6 Bén, pròpi intanta che se truvaven in quèll siit, s'inn cumpii per lée i dí de parturí. 7 L'a mettüü al muunt el sò primm, l'a faa sü in di fass e l'a miss giò in d'una grüppia perchè gh'éra minga de pòst per luur in la lucanda.

See also

• Carlo Porta
• Western Lombard

Statue of Carlo Porta. ... Western Lombard (Insubric) is a Lombard language variety spoken in Italy and Switzerland (Canton Ticino). ...

External links

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