Lombard (native name: ,
Classical Milanese orthography 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 ...
, and . ,
[ Ticinese orthography.] [Modern Western orthography.] or ,
[ Eastern unified orthography.] depending on the orthography; pronunciation: ) is a
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
,
belonging to the
Gallo-Italic family and consisting in a
cluster of homogeneous dialects spoken by millions of speakers in
Northern Italy and
Southern Switzerland, including most of
Lombardy and some areas of neighbouring regions, notably the eastern side of
Piedmont
it, Piemontese
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and the western side 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 ...
, and in
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
in the cantons of
Ticino
Ticino (), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino,, informally ''Canton Ticino'' ; lmo, Canton Tesin ; german: Kanton Tessin ; french: Canton du Tessin ; rm, Chantun dal Tessin . ...
and
Graubünden.
It is also spoken in
Santa Catarina in
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
by Lombard immigrants from the
Province of Bergamo.
Origins
The most ancient
linguistic substratum that has left a mark on the Lombard language is that of the
ancient Ligures.
[Agnoletto, p.120][D'Ilario, p.28] However, available information about this ancient language and its influence on modern Lombard is extremely vague and limited.
This is in sharp contrast to the influence left by the
Celts
The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...
who settled Northern Italy and brought their
Celtic languages
The Celtic languages (usually , but sometimes ) are a group of related languages descended from Proto-Celtic. They form a branch of the Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward ...
, also culturally and linguistically Celticizing the Ligures.
[D'Ilario, p.29] The Celtic substratum of modern Lombard and neighboring languages of Northern Italy is self-evident, so that the Lombard language is classified as a
Gallo-Italic language (from the ancient Roman name for identifying the Celts, that is
Gauls
The Gauls ( la, Galli; grc, Γαλάται, ''Galátai'') were a group of Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age and the Roman period (roughly 5th century BC to 5th century AD). Their homeland was known as Gaul (''Gallia''). They sp ...
).
Roman domination shaped the dialects spoken in the area, which was called
Cisalpine Gaul by the Romans, so that much of the
lexicon and
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraints, a field that includes doma ...
of the Lombard language find their origin in the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
language.
Yet, such influence was not homogeneous;
idioms of different areas were influenced by previous linguistic substrata, and each area was marked by a stronger or weaker Latinisation or preservation of ancient Celtic characteristics.
Also the
Germanic Lombardic language left strong traces in modern Lombard language, as it was the variety of Germanic spoken by the
Germanic Lombards
The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774.
The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 an ...
(or Longobards), who settled all Northern Italy (called
Greater Lombardy after them) and other parts of the Italian peninsula after the fall of the
Western Roman Empire
The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period ...
. Lombardic acted as a
linguistic superstratum
In linguistics, a stratum ( Latin for "layer") or strate is a language that influences or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum or substrate is a language that has lower power or prestige than another, while a superstratum or ...
on Lombard and neighboring Gallo-Italic languages, since the Germanic Lombards did not impose their language by law on the Gallo-Roman population, but rather acquired the Gallo-Italic language from the local population. Lombardic left traces, mostly in lexicon and phonetics, without Germanicizing the local language in its structure, so that Lombard preserved its Romance structure.
Status
Lombard is considered a
minority language
A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities. With a total number of 196 sovereign states recognized internationally (as of 2019) ...
, structurally separate from
Italian, by
Ethnologue and by the
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
''Red Book on Endangered Languages''. However, Italy and Switzerland do not recognize Lombard speakers as a linguistic minority. In Italy this is the same as for most other minority languages, which have been for long time incorrectly devalued as corrupted
regional dialects of Italian—despite the fact that they belong to different subgroups of the Romance language family, and their historical development is not related to standard Italian (derived from Tuscan).
Speakers
Historically, the vast majority of
Lombards
The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774.
The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 an ...
spoke Lombard only. With the rise of standard Italian throughout Italy and Lombard-speaking Switzerland, one is not likely to find wholly
monolingual Lombard speakers, but a small minority may still be uncomfortable speaking standard Italian. Surveys in Italy find that all Lombard speakers also speak Italian, and their command of each of the two languages varies according to their
geographical position as well as their
socio-
economic
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with th ...
situation. The most reliable predictor was found to be the speaker's age: studies have found that young people are much less likely to speak Lombard as proficiently as their grandparents did. In some areas, elderly people are more used to speaking Lombard than Italian, even though they know the latter as well as the former.
Classification
Lombard belongs to the
Gallo-Italic (Cisalpine) group of
Gallo-Romance languages, which belongs to the
Western Romance
Western Romance languages are one of the two subdivisions of a proposed subdivision of the Romance languages based on the La Spezia–Rimini Line. They include the Gallo-Romance and Iberian Romance branches. Gallo-Italic may also be include ...
subdivision.
Varieties
Traditionally, the Lombard dialects have been classified into the Eastern, Western, Alpine, and Southern Lombard dialects.
The varieties of the Italian provinces of
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...
,
Varese,
Como
Como (, ; lmo, Còmm, label= Comasco , or ; lat, Novum Comum; rm, Com; french: Côme) is a city and '' comune'' in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como.
Its proximity to Lake Como and to the Alps ...
,
Lecco,
Lodi,
Monza and Brianza,
Pavia
Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the ...
and
Mantua
Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and '' comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name.
In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture. In 2017, it was named as the Eur ...
belong to
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), ...
, and the ones of
Bergamo,
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
Cremona are dialects of
Eastern Lombard. All the varieties spoken in the Swiss areas (both in
canton
Canton may refer to:
Administrative division terminology
* Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland
* Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French
Arts and ente ...
Ticino
Ticino (), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino,, informally ''Canton Ticino'' ; lmo, Canton Tesin ; german: Kanton Tessin ; french: Canton du Tessin ; rm, Chantun dal Tessin . ...
and canton
Graubünden) are Western, and both Western and Eastern varieties are found in the Italian areas.
The varieties of the Alpine valleys of
Valchiavenna and
Valtellina
Valtellina or the Valtelline (occasionally spelled as two words in English: Val Telline; rm, Vuclina (); lmo, Valtelina or ; german: Veltlin; it, Valtellina) is a valley in the Lombardy region of northern Italy, bordering Switzerland. Tod ...
(province of
Sondrio) and upper-
Valcamonica (province of Brescia) and the four Lombard valleys of the Swiss canton of
Graubünden, although they have some peculiarities of their own and some traits in common with Eastern Lombard, should be considered Western. Also, dialects from the
Piedmontese provinces of
Verbano-Cusio-Ossola and
Novara
Novara (, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin. It i ...
, the
Valsesia valley (
province of Vercelli
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 ...
), and the city of
Tortona
Tortona (; pms, Torton-a , ; lat, Dhertona) is a '' comune'' of Piemonte, in the Province of Alessandria, Italy. Tortona is sited on the right bank of the Scrivia between the plain of Marengo and the foothills of the Ligurian Apennines.
Histor ...
are closer to Western Lombard than to Piedmontese. Alternatively, following the traditional classification, the varieties spoken in parts of
Sondrio,
Trento
Trento ( or ; Ladin and lmo, Trent; german: Trient ; cim, Tria; , ), also anglicized as Trent, is a city on the Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th centu ...
,
Ticino
Ticino (), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino,, informally ''Canton Ticino'' ; lmo, Canton Tesin ; german: Kanton Tessin ; french: Canton du Tessin ; rm, Chantun dal Tessin . ...
and
Grigioni can be considered as
Alpine Lombard, while those spoken in southern Lombardy such as in Pavia, Lodi, Cremona and Mantova can be classified as
Southern Lombard
Southern may refer to:
Businesses
* China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China
* Southern Airways, defunct US airline
* Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US
* Southern Airways Express, ...
.
Literature
The Lombard variety with the oldest literary tradition (from the 13th century) is that of
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...
, but
Milanese, the native Lombard variety of the area, has now almost completely been superseded by Italian from the heavy influx of immigrants from other parts of Italy (especially
Apulia,
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
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, and
Campania
(man), it, Campana (woman)
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) during the fast industrialization after the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
.
Ticinese is a comprehensive denomination for the Lombard varieties spoken in Swiss canton
Ticino
Ticino (), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino,, informally ''Canton Ticino'' ; lmo, Canton Tesin ; german: Kanton Tessin ; french: Canton du Tessin ; rm, Chantun dal Tessin . ...
(Tessin), and the ''Ticinese koiné'' is the Western Lombard
koiné used by speakers of local dialects (particularly those diverging from the ''koiné'' itself) when they communicate with speakers of other Lombard dialects of
Ticino
Ticino (), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino,, informally ''Canton Ticino'' ; lmo, Canton Tesin ; german: Kanton Tessin ; french: Canton du Tessin ; rm, Chantun dal Tessin . ...
,
Grigioni, or Italian
Lombardy. The koiné is similar to Milanese and the varieties of the neighbouring provinces on the Italian side of the border.
There is extant literature in other varieties of Lombard, for example ''La masséra da bé'', a theatrical work in early Eastern Lombard, written by Galeazzo dagli Orzi (1492–?) presumably in 1554.
''Produzione e circolazione del libro a Brescia tra Quattro e Cinquecento: atti della seconda Giornata di studi "Libri e lettori a Brescia tra Medioevo ed età moderna"''
Valentina Grohovaz (Brescia, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) 4 marzo 2004. Published by "Vita e Pensiero" in 2006, , (Google Books).
Usage
Standard Italian is widely used in Lombard-speaking areas. However, the status of Lombard is quite different in the Swiss and Italian areas, so that the Swiss areas have now become the real stronghold of Lombard.
In Switzerland
In the Swiss areas, the local Lombard varieties are generally better preserved and more vital than in Italy. No negative feelings are associated with the use of Lombard in everyday life, even with complete strangers. Some radio and television programmes, particularly comedies, are occasionally broadcast by the Swiss Italian-speaking broadcasting company in Lombard. Moreover, it is common for people to answer in Lombard in spontaneous interviews. Even some television ads have been broadcast in Lombard. The major research institution working on Lombard dialects is located in Bellinzona
Bellinzona ( , , Ticinese ; french: Bellinzone ; german: Bellenz ; rm, Blizuna )is a municipality, a historic Swiss town, and the capital of the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. The town is famous for its three castles (Castelgrande, Montebell ...
, Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
(''CDE – Centro di dialettologia e di etnografia'', a governmental (cantonal) institution); there is no comparable institution in 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 ...
. In December 2004, the CDE released a dictionary in five volumes, covering all the Lombard varieties spoken in the Swiss areas.
In Italy
Today, in most urban areas of Italian Lombardy, people under 40 years old speak almost exclusively Italian in their daily lives because of schooling and television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
broadcasts in Italian. However, in rural areas, Lombard is still vital and used alongside Italian.
Lombard is spoken in Campione d'Italia
Campione d'Italia (Comasco: , ) is a '' comune'' of the Province of Como in the Lombardy region of Italy and an enclave surrounded by the Swiss canton of Ticino (it is also an exclave). At its closest, the enclave is less than from the res ...
, an exclave of Italy surrounded by Swiss territory on Lake Lugano.
Phonology
The following tables show the sounds used in all dialects of Lombard.
Consonants
In Eastern Lombard and Pavese dialect, , and merge to and , and to . In Eastern Lombard, the last sound is often further debuccalized to .
Vowels
In Western varieties, vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word ...
is contrastive (e.g. Milanese "to go" vs "gone"), but Eastern varieties normally use only short allophone
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in '' ...
s.
When two repeating orthographic vowels that are separated by a dash, that prevents them from being confused with the long vowel, such as ''a-a'' in ''ca-àl'' "horse".
Western long and short tend to be back and lower , respectively; and may merge to .
See also
* Diachronics of plural inflection in the Gallo-Italian languages
* Emilian-Romagnol language
* Gallo-Italic of Sicily
* La Spezia–Rimini Line
* Languages of Europe
* Ligurian language
* Piedmontese language
* Pierre Bec Pierre Bec (; oc, Pèire Bèc; 11 December 1921 – 30 June 2014) was a French Occitan-language poet and linguist. Born in Paris, he spent his childhood in Comminges, where he learnt Occitan. He was deported to Germany between 1943 and 1945. A ...
* Romance plurals
* Venetian language
Venetian, wider Venetian or Venetan ( or ) is a Romance language spoken natively in the northeast of Italy,Ethnologue mostly in the Veneto region, where most of the five million inhabitants can understand it. It is sometimes spoken and ofte ...
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
* Bernard Comrie, Stephen Matthews, Maria Polinsky (eds.), The Atlas of languages: the origin and development of languages throughout the world. New York 2003, Facts On File. p. 40.
* Brevini, Franco - Lo stile lombardo: la tradizione letteraria da Bonvesin da la Riva a Franco Loi / Franco Brevini - Pantarei, Lugan - 1984 (Lombard style: literary tradition from Bonvesin da la Riva to Franco Loi )
* Glauco Sanga: La lingua Lombarda, in Koiné in Italia, dalle origini al 500 (Koinés in Italy, from the origin to 1500), Lubrina publisher, Bèrghem.
* Claudio Beretta: ''Letteratura dialettale milanese. Itinerario antologico-critico dalle origini ai nostri giorni'' - Hoepli, 2003.
* G. Hull: "The linguistic Unity of 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 ...
and Rhaetia, PhD thesis, University of Sydney, 1982; published as ''The Linguistic Unity of Northern Italy and Rhaetia: Historical Grammar of the Padanian Language'', 2 vols. Sydney: Beta Crucis Editions, 2017.
* Jørgen G. Bosoni: ''«Una proposta di grafia unificata per le varietà linguistiche lombarde: regole per la trascrizione»'', in ''Bollettino della Società Storica dell’Alta Valtellina'' 6/2003, p. 195-298 (Società Storica Alta Valtellina: Bormio, 2003). A comprehensive description of a unified set of writing rules for all the Lombard varieties of Switzerland and Italy, with IPA
IPA commonly refers to:
* India pale ale, a style of beer
* International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation
* Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound
IPA may also refer to:
Organizations International
* Insolvency Practitioners A ...
transcriptions and examples.
* Tamburelli, M. (2014). Uncovering the ‘hidden’ multilingualism of Europe: an Italian case study. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 35(3), 252-270.
* NED Editori: ''I quatter Vangeli de Mattee, March, Luca E Gioann'' - 2002.
* Stephen A. Wurm: Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing. Paris 2001, UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
Publishing, p. 29.
* Studi di lingua e letteratura lombarda offerti a Maurizio Vitale, (Studies in Lombard language and literature) Pisa: Giardini, 1983
* A cura di Pierluigi Beltrami, Bruno Ferrari, Luciano Tibiletti, Giorgio D'Ilario: ''Canzoniere Lombardo'' - Varesina Grafica Editrice, 1970.
* Sanga, Glauco. 1984. Dialettologia Lombarda. University of Pavia. 346pp.
External links
Far Lombard
This Lombard language association website is a place where you can learn Lombard through texts and audio visual materials.
Lombard language digital library
Learn Lombard online
Learn Lombard Italian site
Centro di dialettologia e di etnografia del Cantone Ticino
Repubblica e Cantone Ticino
Documenti orali della Svizzera italiana.
Istituto di dialettologia e di etnografia valtellinese e valchiavennasca
LSI - Lessico dialettale della Svizzera italiana
RTSI: Acquarelli popolari
some video and audio documents (interviews, recordings, etc. of writers from Ticino
Ticino (), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino,, informally ''Canton Ticino'' ; lmo, Canton Tesin ; german: Kanton Tessin ; french: Canton du Tessin ; rm, Chantun dal Tessin . ...
) in Ticinese varieties (please notice that the metalanguage of this site is Italian, and that some of the interviews are in Italian rather than in Ticinese Lombard).
UNESCO Red Book on Endangered Languages: Europe. Potentially endangered languages
where Lombard is classified as a potentially endangered language.
VSI - Vocabolario dei dialetti della Svizzera italiana
website dedicated to the Lombard language (in English)
Lombard basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
* Lombard Wiktionary in incubator
{{Authority control
Languages of Italy
Languages of Lombardy
Languages of Piedmont
Languages of Switzerland