Eastern Lombard is a group of closely related variants of
Lombard, a
Gallo-Italic dialect spoken in
Lombardy
Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...
, mainly in the provinces of
Bergamo
Bergamo (; lmo, Bèrghem ; from the proto- Germanic elements *''berg +*heim'', the "mountain home") is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Como ...
,
Brescia
Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...
and
Mantua
Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard language, Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, province of the same name.
In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture ...
, in the area around
Cremona
Cremona (, also ; ; lmo, label= Cremunés, Cremùna; egl, Carmona) is a city and ''comune'' in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po river in the middle of the ''Pianura Padana'' ( Po Valley). It is the capital of th ...
and in parts of
Trentino
Trentino ( lld, Trentin), officially the Autonomous Province of Trento, is an autonomous province of Italy, in the country's far north. The Trentino and South Tyrol constitute the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, an autonomous region ...
. Its main variants are
Bergamasque
The Bergamasque dialect is the western variant of the Eastern Lombard group of the Lombard language. It is mainly spoken in the province of Bergamo and in the area around Crema, in central Lombardy.
Bergamasque has official status in the pro ...
and Brescian.
In Italian-speaking contexts, Eastern Lombard is often generically called a "
dialect
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...
", understood as to mean a dialect of Italian, while some claim it is not a dialect but a language.
Eastern Lombard and
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
have only limited
mutual intelligibility
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...
as is the case for many Italian dialects.
Eastern Lombard does not have any official status either in
Lombardy
Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...
or anywhere else: the only
official language
An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, ...
in Lombardy is
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
.
Classification
Eastern Lombard is a
Romance
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
language of the
Gallo-Italic
The Gallo-Italic, Gallo-Italian, Gallo-Cisalpine or simply Cisalpine languages constitute the majority of the Romance languages of northern Italy. They are Piedmontese, Lombard, Emilian, Ligurian, and Romagnol. Although most publications def ...
branch, closer to
Occitan Occitan may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain.
* Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France.
* Occitan language
Occitan (; o ...
,
Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
,
French, etc. than to
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
, with a Celtic substratum.
Geographic distribution
Eastern Lombard is primarily spoken in Eastern
Lombardy
Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...
(Northern
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
), in the
provinces
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
of
Bergamo
Bergamo (; lmo, Bèrghem ; from the proto- Germanic elements *''berg +*heim'', the "mountain home") is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Como ...
and
Brescia
Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo. ...
, in the Northern region of the
province of Mantua
The Province of Mantua ( it, provincia di Mantova; Mantovano, Lower Mantovano: ; Upper Mantovano: ) is a province in the Lombardy region of Northern Italy. Its capital is the city of Mantua. It is bordered to the north-east by the Province o ...
and in the area around
Crema
Crema or Cremas may refer to:
Crema
* Crema, Lombardy, a ''comune'' in the northern Italian province of Cremona
* Crema (coffee), a thin layer of foam at the top of a cup of espresso
* Crema (dairy product)
Crema is the Spanish word for cream. I ...
.
The varieties spoken in these regions are generally mutually intelligible for speakers of neighboring areas, but this is not always true for distant peripheral areas. For instance, an inhabitant of the alpine valleys of Bergamo can hardly be understood by a rural inhabitant of the plains of Mantua. Differences include lexical, grammatical and phonetic aspects.
Phonology
The following notes are essentially based on the variety of Eastern Lombard spoken in Brescia. The basic principle are generally valid also for the other varieties but local discrepancies can be found.
Eastern Lombard has 9
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
s and 20
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
s.
Consonants
The voiced consonants , , , , , never occur at the end of a word.
This phenomenon, common to other languages (including
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
,
Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
,
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
,
Turkish and
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
), is called
final devoicing
Final-obstruent devoicing or terminal devoicing is a systematic phonological process occurring in languages such as Catalan, German, Dutch, Breton, Russian, Polish, Lithuanian, Turkish, and Wolof. In such languages, voiced obstruents in fina ...
. The phoneme only occurs in loanwords, often borrowings from Italian. For example, ''scià'', "to ski" (from Italian ''sciare'') is pronounced . The phoneme is pronounced before a consonant. This never occurs inside a word as the segment + consonant doesn't exist in Eastern Lombard. However, it does occur when appears word-finally preceding another word which begins with a consonant.
For example:
::* ''I è nacc vià'' = "they have gone away"
''i è nacc a spas'' = "they have gone for a leisury walk"
::* ''Töcc du'' = "both", "each of the two"
''töcc öndes'' = "all of the eleven"
The approximants and are distinct phonemes from the vocalic sounds , . This can be seen in the following examples:
::* = "how much" = "brooded"
::* = "dish" = "bitten"
Locally, the alveolar fricative is replaced by the glottal fricative . This mainly happens in the prealpine valleys of the provinces of Bergamo and Brescia; thus ''Brèssa'' ("Brescia") is pronounced instead of . However, even in areas where this phenomenon is the rule, there are some interesting exceptions to take in account. Words like ''grassie'' ("thanks") are never pronounced . At present, the most common pronunciation is but a more genuine outcome (and often preferred by aged people) would be .
Other examples for this feature:
*''Licensià'' ("to dismiss, to fire") = /
*''Cristià'' ("Christian") = /
*''Pasiù'' ("passion") = /
Assimilation
Regressive
assimilation at word boundaries is common in Eastern Lombard. Assimilation can be either complete or partial. Complete assimilation occurs when two occlusive sounds fall in contact. In this case the first occlusive is completely absorbed by the second and the resulting sound has all the features of the second consonant but is notably lengthened. For example:
* ''el ga fa
t pàla'' =
* ''l'è trò
p calt'' ("it's too hot") =
* ''el ga
t bianc'' ("the white cat") =
The same phenomenon occurs when an occlusive consonant precedes a nasal or a liquid consonant. For example:
* ''en ga
t négher'' ("a black cat") =
* ''l'è trò
p mis'' =
* ''so ché stra
c mórt'' ("I'm dead tired")=
Complete assimilation can also occur when an occlusive precedes a fricative. For example: ''l'è ni
t vért'' = .
When a sequence of nasal+occlusive falls in contact with another occlusive or a fricative, the first occlusive is completely elided and the nasal undergoes partial assimilation. In this case no lengthening occurs. For example:
* ''el ga 'l sa
nch blö'' ("he's got blue blood")=
* ''l'è lo
nc fés'' =
But when an occlusive precedes , assimilation involves both consonants and the result is an affricate sound:
* ''l'è ni
t zó ècc'' =
* ''l'è trò
p zalt'' ("it's too yellow") =
The phoneme can undergo assimilation in
place of articulation
In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a consonant is a location along the vocal tract where its production occurs. It is a point where a constriction is made between an active and a passive articula ...
with a following consonant. Thus, the /n/ in and is a velar , the /n/ in and is a labiodental . Within a word, the phoneme is never transcribed before and , where is written instead. Nasal assimilation, including to , also takes place across word boundaries. For example:
* ''e
n ca'' ("a dog") =
* ''vàghe
n fò'' ("hurry up") =
* ''l'a
n pasàt'' ("last year") =
Vowels
Eastern Lombard has 9 vocalic sounds:
Only three vocalic phonemes occur in unstressed final syllables: in open syllables only, and and in both open and closed syllables. Other vowels can occur in final syllables in loanwords.
Locally, the phoneme is pronounced when it appears as last sound of the word in an unstressed syllable
(actually slightly more close than cardinal ). For example:
* ''lün
a'' ("moon") =
* ''seteman
a'' ("week") =
Unstressed vowel system reduction and local variability
Some vowel contrasts are eliminated in unstressed syllables. For example, in the urban Brescian variety, and no longer contrast. Thus, the word ''robà'' ("to steal") can be pronounced both and , with almost no difference noticed by speakers. In addition, a further variant is also possible, though in this case, a difference is noticed by speakers but it is considered a local variant and no loss of intelligibility results. The sounds and also no longer contrast in unstressed syllables, and therefore the word ''vedèl'' ("calf") can be pronounced or . However, when affected by vowel harmony (see
below), the unstressed sounds /, /, and become , , and respectively.
In conclusion, it is possible to say that only five contrastive vowel qualities are found in unstressed syllables: //, /, , /, (but with the not completely separated from /). Some examples:
* ''molà'' ("to let go, to release")
* ''mölà'' ("to grind")
* ''malàt'' ("sick, ill")
* ''pelàt'' ("bald")
* ''Milà'' ("Milan")
The situation can differ for other Eastern Lombard varieties, however, and the rules of the unstressed vowel system vary according to the area. For example, in
Franciacorta
The territory of Franciacorta, from Latin "franchae curtes", which means "exempted from paying duties", is a section of the Province of Brescia in the Italian Region of Lombardy. Franciacorta is known for its wine production and includes world-f ...
, a province of Brescia, the sounds and are regularly replaced by and in pretonic position:
* ''mulà'' instead of ''molà''
* ''Ruàt'' ("
Rovato
Rovato (Brescian: ) is a ''comune'' in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy, northern Italy. Neighbouring towns are Coccaglio, Erbusco and Cazzago San Martino. It is located in the Franciacorta hills, 11 km south of Lake Iseo and 18 km ...
") instead of ''Roàt''
* ''Üspedalèt'' ("
Ospitaletto
Ospitaletto (Brescian: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy.
Transport
* Ospitaletto-Travagliato railway station
References
Cities and towns in Lombardy
{{Brescia-geo-stub ...
") instead of ''Öspedalèt''
Since in unstressed position these vocalic sounds are not contrastive, these local variants do not compromise reciprocal intelligibility.
Vowel harmony
Certain varieties of Eastern Lombard (mostly in Brescian area) exhibit a process of regressive
vowel harmony
In phonology, vowel harmony is an Assimilation (linguistics), assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is t ...
involving the feature of vowel height.
When the stress falls on a close vowel ( or ) the preceding vowels shift their height, becoming close as well ( and become , while and become ). The vowel is not affected by this process and acts as opaque vowel blocking the harmonization process.
In Camuno, harmonization occurs almost only where the stressed vowel is an and not where it is an .
This phenomenon affects all the words independent of the word's function.
Because the
diminutive
A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formati ...
and
augmentative
An augmentative (abbreviated ) is a morphological form of a word which expresses greater intensity, often in size but also in other attributes. It is the opposite of a diminutive.
Overaugmenting something often makes it grotesque and so in so ...
are formed with the suffixes ''-ì'' and ''-ù'' (feminine ''-ìna'' and ''-ùna'') respectively, this process is easily observable in nouns:
* ''cortèl'' ("knife")
** ''curtilì'' ("small knife")
** ''curtilù'' ("big knife")
As already mentioned, the vowel acts as opaque vowel which blocks the harmonization process:
* ''fontàna'' ("fountain")
** ''fontanì'' ("small fountain"),
not ''funtanì''
* ''öspedàl'' ("hospital")
** ''öspedalì'' ("small hospital"),
not ''üspidalì''
But vowels that occur after the and before the stressed vowel are still affected:
* ''mortadèla'' ("
mortadella")
** ''mortadilìna'' ("small mortadella")
In these cases variants like ''funtanì'' and ''üspedalì'' (but not ''üspidalì'') or ''murtadilìna'' are accepted (or locally preferred) but fall under the normal unstressed vowel variability.
Verbs are affected by this process in their conjugation, when the inflection contains a stressed (there are no verbal suffixes containing a stressed ). For example:
* ''öler'' ("to want")
** ''öle'' ("I want")
** ''ülìt'' ("wanted", past participle)
** ''ülìf'' ("you want", second person plural)
** ''ülìef'' ("you wanted", second person plural imperfect indicative)
Adjectives formed with the suffix ''-ùs'' (feminine ''-ùza'') also exhibit this rule:
* ''póra'' ("fear")
** ''purús'', ''purúza'' ("fearful person")
Orthography
Since Eastern Lombard is still principally an oral language, a commonly accepted orthography has not been established. While in recent years there has been an increasing production of texts (mainly light comedies and poem collections), each author continues to follow their own spelling rules. The most problematic and controversial issues seem to be the representation of intervocalic and (rendered by different authors with , or ) and final vs. (rendered with , or ).
This article follows the rules of the
Italian orthography
Italian orthography (writing) uses a variant of the Latin alphabet consisting of 21 letters to write the Italian language. This article focuses on the writing of Standard Italian, based historically on the Florentine dialect.
Italian orthography ...
, with the following exceptions.
Vowels
Diacritic marks are utilized for vowel sounds to distinguish from and from in stressed syllables. Furthermore, the
umlaut is adopted to represent the rounded vowels and :
Note that
grave
A grave is a location where a dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as grave ...
and
acute
Acute may refer to:
Science and technology
* Acute angle
** Acute triangle
** Acute, a leaf shape in the glossary of leaf morphology
* Acute (medicine), a disease that it is of short duration and of recent onset.
** Acute toxicity, the adverse eff ...
accents are also used to indicate the stressed syllable in non-monosyllabic words. Since unstressed vowels are less distinctive, it is not necessary to discriminate the open/close quality.
Consonants
The
digraph is used at the end of the word to represent the sound (in other positions this sound is rendered by means of the usual Italian orthography rules: before front vowels and before non-front vowels).
A consonant sequence that is peculiar to Lombard is that of a
voiceless alveolar fricative
The voiceless alveolar fricatives are a type of fricative consonant pronounced with the tip or blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge (gum line) just behind the teeth. This refers to a class of sounds, not a single sound. There are at least ...
followed by a
voiceless postalveolar affricate
The voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant affricate or voiceless domed postalveolar sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with , (formerly ...
, . This article adopts the convention of representing this sound as , although other texts may follow different traditions (so the same sequence can also be spelled or or even the ambiguous ; some authors use ). This sequence, which is absent in Italian, can occur at the beginning of word, as in ''s·cèt'' ("son, boy") ; in the middle, as in ''brös·cia'' ("brush") ; or at the end, as in ''giös·cc'' ("right, correct", plural) .
The sequence is also present in Eastern Lombard and is represented in this article with the sequence of signs , for example:
* ''bàsgia'' ("large bowl") =
* ''sgionfà'' ("to inflate") =
Grammar
The grammatical system of Eastern Lombard is similar to other those of other Romance languages. The
word order
In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how different languages employ different orders. C ...
is
SVO (subject–verb–object) and it has a moderate inflection system: verbs are declined for
mood,
tense and
aspect
Aspect or Aspects may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art
* Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company
* Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England
* ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...
and agree with their subject in
person
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, ...
and
number
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...
. Nouns are classified as either
masculine or feminine and can be marked as singular or plural. Adjectives and pronouns agree with any nouns they modify in gender and number. Eastern Lombard also prefers
preposition
Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
s over
case marking
A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nomina ...
.
Literature
The oldest known text written in Eastern Lombard consists of fragments of a laud known as ''Mayor gremeza il mund no pothevela ancor aver'', a manuscript found in
Bovegno
Bovegno (Brescian: ) is a ''comune'' in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy. It borders the communes of Artogne, Berzo Inferiore, Bienno, Collio, Esine, Gianico, Irma, Marmentino and Pezzaze. It is located in the valley named Val Trompia.
...
(
Trompia The Val Trompia (also: ''Valle Trompia'') is a slightly more than 50 km long valley in the Province of Brescia, northern Italy. It consists of the valleys of the river Mella and its tributaries, north of the city of Brescia. It is situated bet ...
valley), and dating from the fourteenth century. Today, literary production has increased in volume and mainly consists in light comedies and poem collections (Angelo Canossi is an example for poetry in the Brescian dialect).
Examples
The following tale is in Brescian:
''La mèrla''
''I mèrli 'na ólta i ghìa le pène biànche, ma chèl envéren lé l'éra stàt en bèl envéren e lé, la mèrla, la gà dìt: "Zenér de la màla gràpa, per tò despèt gó i uzilì 'ndela gnàta." A lü, 'l Zenér, gh'è nìt adòs 'n pó de ràbia, e 'l gà dìt: "Spèta, mèrla, che te la faró mé adès a té, e se te sét biànca mé te faró ègner négra." E pò dòpo 'l gà dit amò: "Dù ghe i ó e giü 'n prèstet el töaró e se te sét biànca, mé te faró ní négra." E alùra 'l gà fàt nì fò 'n frèt che se n'ìa mài vést giü compàgn.''
''Lé la mèrla la saìa piö che fà cói sò uzilì ndèla gnàta, e isé l'è nàda a rifügiàs endèla càpa del camì; dré al camì va sö 'l föm e lùr i uzilì i è déentàcc töcc négher, e quànche i è nicc fò de là, la mèrla la gh'ìa mìa piö le pène biànche, ma la ghe i éra négre. Alùra Zenér, töt sudisfàt, el gà dìt: "Tò mèrla, che te l'ó fàda mé staólta: se te se stàda biànca mé t'ó fàt ní négra e isé te làset lé de seghetà a tiràm en gìr."''
Phonetic transcription
The she-blackbird
Once upon a time blackbirds had white feathers, but in that time winter had been mild and a she-blackbird scorned January saying: "Bad-headed January, in spite of you I have got a brood in my nest." Hearing this, January got angry and he said: "Just wait a bit, you she-blackbird, I will fool you and I will turn you from white into black." Then he said: "I have got two, and I will borrow one,
["I have got two, and I will borrow one" refers to the days. After a popular tradition, January 30 and 31st and February 1 are called ''I dé de la Mèrla'' ("the days of the She-Blackbird") and are expected to be the most cold of the winter.
Another version of the same tradition makes ''I dé de la Mèrla'' fall at the last three days of January. This last is actually a little more widespread and was also told to children to have them remember that February has 28, days explaining this with the fact that January borrowed one from February to be able to chill the blackbird.] and I will turn you from white to black." And he brought forth a cold as there had never been before.
The she-blackbird did not know how to cope with her brood in the nest, so she sheltered in the hood of a chimney, and the smoke turned all the birds black; so when they came out the blackbirds did not have white feathers anymore, but black ones. And January, very happy, said: "This time it was me that fooled you, blackbird: you were white and I turned you black, this will teach you to stop teasing me."
See also
*
Bergamasque
The Bergamasque dialect is the western variant of the Eastern Lombard group of the Lombard language. It is mainly spoken in the province of Bergamo and in the area around Crema, in central Lombardy.
Bergamasque has official status in the pro ...
*
Lombard languages
Lombard (native name: ,Classical Milanese orthography, and . , Ticinese orthography. Modern Western orthography. or ,Eastern unified orthography. depending on the orthography; pronunciation: ) is a language, belonging to the Gallo-Italic family ...
*
Western Lombard
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), Lo ...
*
Plural inflection in Eastern Lombard
Notes
References
External links
Orbilat- An interesting site more for western lombard, but the map of the distribution of the two main varieties is noteworthy.
from 1902 (in Italian)
(work in progress, in Italian)
a dictionary for the Bergamasque (Casirate d'Adda) dialect, in Italian.
*
for the Camunic variant of Eastern Lombard.
*
collection of comedies in Bergamasque
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eastern Lombard Language
Eastern Lombard language
Languages of Lombardy
Languages of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol
Languages of Brazil