Milanes

Orthography

Classical Milanese orthography is the oldest orthographic convention still in use and it is the one used by all writers of Milanese literature, most famously by Carlo Porta. The trigraph⟨oeu⟩ (sometimes written ⟨œu⟩), used to represent the /ø/ phoneme, is considered the most distinctive feature of this standard. Since the latter half of the 20th century, as a consequence of the Italianization of Lombardy with the Lombard language ceasing to be the main language of daily use in Milan, the Classical orthography has been contested and lost ground as Italian speakers often find it counterintuitive. Classical Milanese orthography, which often reflects etymology, has indeed many words closely resembling their Italian cognates, but pronunciation is often different, one of the most striking examples being orthographic doubled consonants which represent geminates in Italian but a short preceding vowel (if stressed syllable) in Milanese: compare Italian ⟨caro⟩/ˈkaro/ (dear) and ⟨carro⟩/ˈkarro/ (cart) with its Milanese cognates ⟨car⟩/ˈkaːr/ and ⟨carr⟩/ˈkar/.