Comasco (), anglicized as Comasque, is a dialect belonging to the Western branch of

Lombard language The Lombard language (,Classical Milanese orthography, and . ,Ticino, Ticinese orthography. Modern Western orthography and Classical Cremish Orthography. or ,Eastern Lombard, Eastern unified orthography. depending on the orthography; pronuncia ...

, spoken in the city and suburbs of

Como Como (, ; , or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Nestled at the southwestern branch of the picturesque Lake Como, the city is a renowned tourist destination, ce ...

. Comasco is part of the Comasco-Lecchese dialect group.

History

The Comasco dialect evolved as a consequence of its origins and influences. In ancient times, the

Lake Como Lake Como ( , ) also known as Lario, is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. It has an area of , making it the third-largest lake in Italy, after Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore. At over deep, it is one of the deepest lakes in Europe. ...

area was inhabited by Orobi, Leponzi, and Etruscan tribes. As with the rest of the

Po Valley The Po Valley, Po Plain, Plain of the Po, or Padan Plain (, , or ) is a major geographical feature of northern Italy. It extends approximately in an east-west direction, with an area of including its Venetian Plain, Venetic extension not actu ...

, the area was subject to invasions by the Gauls. In Roman times, the Latin spoken in the Lake Como area was influenced by the Celtic substratum, contributing to the phonetic and lexical formation of today's dialect. In the early Middle Ages, the area was occupied by the

Lombards The Lombards () or Longobards () were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who conquered most of the Italian Peninsula between 568 and 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written betwee ...

, who probably spoke a dialect of the Saxon language and brought a further, albeit small, lexical contribution. In the late Middle Ages, the Lake Como territory became part of the

Duchy of Milan The Duchy of Milan (; ) was a state in Northern Italy, created in 1395 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, then the lord of Milan, and a member of the important Visconti of Milan, Visconti family, which had been ruling the city since 1277. At that time, ...

Characteristics

It shares similarities with

Milanese Milanese (endonym in traditional orthography , ) is the central variety of the Western dialect of the Lombard language spoken in Milan, the rest of its metropolitan city, and the northernmost part of the province of Pavia. Milanese, due to t ...

, but more precisely consists of a transition between Brianzöö and Ticinese, in fact both the masculine singular article (typical of central Brianzöö) and (typical of Milanese and Ticinese) are used. Generally, it has harder sounds than other dialects.

History

Characteristics

References

Further reading