Lombard language

TheLombard language(Lombard:lombard,lumbard,lumbartorlombart,depending on the orthography; pronunciation:[lũˈbaːrt,lomˈbart]) belongs to theGallo-Italicgroup within theRomance languages. It is characterized by aCelticlinguistic substratumand aLombardiclinguistic superstratumand is acluster of homogeneous dialectsthat are spoken by millions of speakers inNorthern Italyand southernSwitzerland.  These include most ofLombardyand some areas of the neighbouring regions, notably the far eastern side ofPiedmontand the extreme western side ofTrentino, and in Switzerland in the cantons ofTicinoandGraubünden.The language is also spoken inSanta CatarinainBrazilby Lombard immigrants from theProvince of Bergamo, inItaly.
The most ancientlinguistic substratumthat has left a mark on the Lombard language is that of the ancientLigures.However, available information about the ancient language and its influence on modern Lombard is extremely vague and limited.That is in sharp contrast to the influence left by theCelts, who settled inNorthern Italyand brought theirCeltic languagesand culturally and linguistically Celticised the Ligures.The Celtic substratum of modern Lombard and the neighbouring languages of Northern Italy is self-evident and so the Lombard language is classified as aGallo-Italic language(from the ancient Roman name for the Celts,Gauls).
Roman dominationshaped the dialects spoken in the area, which is calledCisalpine Gaul("Gaul, this side of the mountains") by the Romans, and much of thelexiconandgrammarof the Lombard language have their origin inLatin.However, that influence was not homogeneoussince idioms of different areas were influenced by previous linguistic substrata, and each area was marked by a stronger or weaker Latinisation or the preservation of ancient Celtic characteristics.
The GermanicLombardic languagealso left strong traces in modern Lombard, as it was the variety ofGermanicthat was spoken by the GermanicLombards(or Longobards), who settled in Northern Italy, which is calledGreater Lombardyafter them, and in other parts of theItalian Peninsulaafter the fall of theWestern Roman Empire. Lombardic acted as alinguistic superstratumon Lombard and neighboring Gallo-Italic languages since the Germanic Lombards did not impose their language by law on the Gallo-Roman population, but they rather acquired the Gallo-Italic language from the local population. Lombardic left traces, mostly in lexicon and phonetics, without Germanicising the local language in its structure and so Lombard preserved its Romance structure.
From the 15th century onwards, literary Tuscan began to supplant the use of northern vernaculars such as Lombard, even regardless of the fact that Lombard itself began to be heavily influenced by the Tuscan vernacular. Prior to that, the Lombard language was widely used in administrative spheres.Among those who favoured the strengthening of Tuscan influences over Lombard culture was the Duke of Milan Ludovico il Moro; during his reign he brought numerous men of culture from the Republic of Florence to the Sforza court, the most famous of whom was certainly Leonardo da Vinci.At the same time, however, Lancino Curzio still wrote some works in Milanese dialect at the Sforza court.
Between the 15th and 16th centuries, the Lombard language was widely and actively discredited in Italian literary circles.  Tuscan writers and humanists such asLuigi PulciandBenedetto Deirecorded aspects of the language spoken in Milan in the form of parodies;similarly, the Asti-born writer Giorgio Alione parodied Milanese in hisCommedia e farse carnovalesche nei dialetti astigiano, milanese e francese misti con latino barbaro(eng. "Comedy and carnival farces in the Asti, Milanese and French dialects mixed with barbaric Latin") composed at the end of the 15th century.The Florentine humanistLeonardo Salviati, one of the founders of theAccademia della Crusca, an important Italian linguistic academy operating to this day, published a series of translations of a Boccaccian tale into various vernaculars (including Bergamo and Milanese) explicitly in order to demonstrate how ugly and awkward they were compared to Tuscan.
At the same time, the 15th century saw the first signs of a true Lombard literature: in the eastern parts of Lombardy, the Bergamo-bornGiovanni Bressanicomposed numerous volumes of satirical poetry and  the Brescia-born Galeazzo dagli Orzi wrote hisMassera da bé, a sort of theatrical dialogue;in the west of the region area, the Mannerist painter Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo lead the composition of the "arabesques" in the Accademia dei Facchini della Val di Blenio, a Milaneseacademyfounded in 1560.
At the beginning of the 17th century, the Ossola native Giovanni Capis published theVaron milanes de la lengua de Milan(eng. "Varrone Milanese on the language of Milan"), a sort of etymological dictionary was published.
An example of a text in ancient Milanese dialect is this excerpt fromIl falso filosofo(1698), act III, scene XIV, whereMeneghino, a traditional Milanese character from thecommedia dell'arte, presents himself in court (Lombard on the left,  Italian translation on the right):
The 17th century also saw the rise of the figure of the playwright Carlo Maria Maggi, who normalised the spelling of the Milanese dialect and who created, among other things, the Milanese mask of Meneghino.A friend and correspondent of Maggi was Francesco De Lemene, author of La sposa Francesca (the first literary work in modernLodidialect)and of a translation ofGerusalemme liberata. Moreover, the 17th century saw the emergence of the firstbosinade: popular poems written on loose sheets and posted in the squares or read (or even sung) in public; they were widely diffused until the first decades of the 20th century.
Milanese literature in the 18th century was quickly developing: some important names which emerged in that period includeDomenico Balestrieri, who was associated the famous poetGiuseppe Parini. The latter wrote some compositions in the Lombard language.One of the most important writers of the period was the Bergamo-based abbotGiuseppe Rota, author of a substantial (unpublished) Bergamo-Italian-Latin vocabulary and of several poetic works in the Orobic idiom, which he always called "lingua".
In this period the linguistic characteristics of Lombard were well recognizable and comparable to the modern ones, except for some phonetic peculiarities and the presence of a remote past tense, replaced almost fully by the past perfect tense by 1875.
The beginning of the 19th century was dominated by the figure ofCarlo Porta, recognized by many as the most important author of Lombard literature, also included among the greatest poets of Italian national literature. With him some of the highest peaks of expressiveness in the Lombard language were reached, which clearly emerged in works such asLa Ninetta del Verzee, Desgrazzi de Giovannin Bongee,La guerra di pretandLament del Marchionn de gamb avert.
Milanese poetic production assumed such important dimensions that in 1815 the scholarFrancesco Cherubinipublished an anthology of Lombard literature in four volumes, which included texts written from the seventeenth century to his day.
In the first part of the 20th century, the greatest exponent of Lombard literature was the Milanese lawyerDelio Tessa, who distanced himself from the Portian tradition by giving his texts a strong expressionist tone.In Bergamo, the most prominent advocate of Lombard language wasBortolo Belotti, a lawyer, historian and minister in the liberal governments of the time.
The Lombard language became known outside its linguistic borders thanks to I Legnanesi, a theatre company that performed comedies in theLegnanesedialect and which is the most famous example oftravesti theatrein Italy.In their comic shows the actors propose to the public satirical figures of the typical Lombard court; founded inLegnanoin 1949 by Felice Musazzi, Tony Barlocco and Luigi Cavalleri, it is among the most famous companies in the European dialect theatre scene.
The 21st century has also seen the use of Lombard in contemporary music, such as in the musical pieces of Davide Van De Sfroosand in the translations into Lombard of the works of Bob Dylan.There is no shortage of translations of great literary classics; in fact, there are numerous versions in Lombard of works such as Pinocchio, The Betrothed, The Little Prince, the Divine Comedy and – in religious literature – of the Gospels.
Lombard is considered aminority languagethat is structurally separate fromItalianby bothEthnologueand theUNESCORed Book on Endangered Languages. However,ItalyandSwitzerlanddo not recognize Lombard-speakers as a linguistic minority. In Italy, that is the same as for most other minority languages,which have been for a long time incorrectly classed as corruptedregional dialects of Italian. However, Lombard and Italian belong to different subgroups of the Romance language family, and Lombard's historical development is not related toStandard Italian, which is derived fromTuscan.
Historically, the vast majority ofLombardsspoke only Lombard, as "Italian" was merely a literary language, and most Italians were not able to read or write.After theItalian economic miracle, Standard Italian arose throughout Italy and Lombard-speaking Switzerland, wholly-monolingualLombard-speakers became a rarity as time went by, 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 both two languages varies according to theirgeographicalposition as well as theirsocio-economicsituation. 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.In some areas, elderly people are more used to speaking Lombard than Italian even though they know both.
Lombard belongs to theGallo-Italic(Cisalpine) group ofGallo-Romance languages, which belongs to theWestern Romancesubdivision.
Traditionally, the Lombard dialects have been classified into the Eastern, Western, Alpine and Southern Lombard dialects.
The varieties of the Italian provinces ofMilan,Varese,Como,Lecco,Lodi,Monza and Brianza,PaviaandMantuabelong toWestern Lombard, and the provinces ofBergamo,BresciaandCremonaare dialects ofEastern Lombard. All varieties spoken in the Swiss areas (both in theCantonofTicinoand the Canton ofGraubünden) are Western, and both Western and Eastern varieties are found in the Italian areas.
The varieties of the Alpine valleys ofValchiavennaandValtellina(Sondrio) and upper-Valcamonica(Brescia) and the four Lombard valleys of the Swiss canton ofGraubündenhave some peculiarities of their own and some traits in common with Eastern Lombard but should be considered Western.Also, dialects from thePiedmonteseprovinces ofVerbano-Cusio-OssolaandNovara, theValsesiavalley (province of Vercelli), and the city ofTortonaare closer to Western Lombard than to Piedmontese.Alternatively, following the traditional classification, the varieties spoken in parts ofSondrio,Trentino,TicinoandGrigionican be considered asAlpine Lombard,and those spoken in southern Lombardy such as in Pavia, Lodi, Cremona and Mantova can be classified asSouthern Lombard.
Lacking a standard language, authors in the 13th and 14th language createdFranco-Lombard, a mixed language includingOld French, for their literary works.
The Lombard variety with the oldest literary tradition (from the 13th century) is that ofMilan, butMilanese, the native Lombard variety of the area, has now almost completely been superseded by Italian from the heavy influx of migrants from other parts of Italy (especially fromApulia,SicilyandCampania) during the rapid industrialization after theSecond World War.
Ticineseis a comprehensive denomination for the Lombard varieties that are spoken in Swiss cantonTicino(Tessin), and theTicinese koinéis the Western Lombardkoinéused by speakers of local dialects (particularly those diverging from thekoinéitself) when they communicate with speakers of other Lombard dialects ofTicino,Grigionior ItalianLombardy. 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 likeLa masséra da bé, a theatrical work in early Eastern Lombard, written by Galeazzo dagli Orzi (1492–?) presumably in 1554.
Standard Italian is widely used in Lombard-speaking areas. However, the status of Lombard is quite different in the Swiss and Italian areas and so the Swiss areas have now become the real strongholds of Lombard.
In the Swiss areas, the local Lombardvarietiesare 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 theSwiss Italian-speaking broadcasting companyin Lombard. Moreover, it is common for people to answer in Lombard in spontaneous interviews. Even some television advertisements have been broadcast in Lombard. The major research institution working on Lombard dialects is inBellinzona,Switzerland(CDE – Centro di dialettologia e di etnografia, a governmental (cantonal) institution); there is no comparable institution in Italy. In December 2004, it released a dictionary in five volumes, covering all Lombard varieties spoken in the Swiss areas.
Today, in most urban areas of Italian Lombardy, people under 40 years old speak almost exclusively Italian in their daily lives because of schooling andtelevisionbroadcasts in Italian. However, in rural areas, Lombard is still vital and used alongside Italian.
A certain revival of the use of Lombard has been observed in the last decade. The popularity of modern artists singing their lyrics in Lombard dialects (in Italianrock dialettale, the best known of such artists being Davide Van de Sfroos) is also a relatively-new but growing phenomenon involving the Swiss and the Italian areas.
Lombard is spoken inCampione d'Italia, an exclave of Italy that is surrounded by Swiss territory onLake Lugano.
The following tables show the sounds that are used in all Lombard dialects.
InEastern LombardandPavese dialect/dz/,/z/and/ʒ/merge to[z]and/ts/,/s/and/ʃ/merge to[s]. InEastern Lombard, the last sound is often furtherdebuccalizedto[h].
InWestern varieties,vowel lengthis contrastive (Milaneseandà"to go" andandaa"gone"),but Eastern varieties normally use only shortallophones.
Two repeating orthographic vowels are separated by a dash to prevent them from being confused with a long vowel:a-ainca-àl"horse".
Western long/aː/and short/ø/tend to be back[ɑː]and lower[œ], respectively, and/e/and/ɛ/may merge to[ɛ].
There have been contemporary attempts to develop alternative spelling systems suitable for use by all variants of Lombard. Among these, there is the attempt to develop a unified spelling (lomb. urtugrafia ünificada), which has not taken root due to the excessive complexity and lack of intuitiveness (as well as the lack of adaptability to the Italian keyboard) of the system, which uses symbols such as ç for /z/ and /ʧ/, or ə for unstressed /a/, /ə/ and /e/, as well as the obligation to mark the vowel length, despite the elimination of the accents on the first grapheme of the digraph (aa and not àa).Some examples are presented below: