Classical Milanese orthography
Encyclopedia
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 was first used in the sixteenth century by Carlo Maria Maggi; Maggi first introduced the trigram oeu, while previous authors, like Bonvesin de la Riva
(thirteenth century), used Latinizing orthographies. In 1606 G.A. Biffi with his Prissian de Milan de la parnonzia milanesa began the first codification, incorporating vowel length and the use of ou to represent the sound /œ/.
The classical orthography came as a compromise between the old Tuscan system and the French one; the characteristic that considerably differentiates this orthography from the effective pronunciation is the method for the distinction of long and short vowels. As of today, because it has become more archaic, it is often replaced by simpler methods that use signs ö, ü for front rounded vowels and the redoubling of vowels for long vowels. The classical orthography was regularized in the 1990s by the Circolo Filologico Milanese for modern use.
The classical Milanese orthography (as edited by Circolo Filologico Milanese) has the following conventions that differ from Italian alphabet
.
General use of accents:
Pronunciation of vowels and false diphthongs:
Use of consonants:
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
used for the Western Lombard
Western Lombard
Western Lombard is a Romance language spoken in Italy, in the Lombard provinces of Milan, Monza, Varese, Como, Lecco, Sondrio, a small part of Cremona , Lodi and Pavia, and the Piedmont provinces of Novara, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola and a small part of Vercelli , and Switzerland...
language, in particular for the Milanese dialect, by the major poets and writers of this literature, such as Carlo Porta
Carlo Porta
Carlo Porta was an Italian poet, the most famous writer in Milanese .-Biography:...
, Carlo Maria Maggi
Carlo Maria Maggi
Carlo Maria Maggi was an Italian scholar, writer and poet. Despite being an Accademia della Crusca affiliate, he gained his fame as an author of "dialectal" works in Milanese language, for which he is considered the father of Milanese literature...
, Delio Tessa
Delio Tessa
Delio Tessa was an Italian poet from Milan. He is the most renowned writer in Milanese dialect after Carlo Porta. The originality of his poetry stands mostly in his obsessional expressionism and his allucinated and satirical way to depict Death...
etc.
It was first used in the sixteenth century by Carlo Maria Maggi; Maggi first introduced the trigram oeu, while previous authors, like Bonvesin de la Riva
Bonvesin de la Riva
Bonvesin da la Riva was a well-to-do Milanese lay member of the Ordine degli Umiliati , a teacher of grammar and a notable Lombard poet and writer of the 13th century.His De magnalibus urbis Mediolani , written in the late spring of...
(thirteenth century), used Latinizing orthographies. In 1606 G.A. Biffi with his Prissian de Milan de la parnonzia milanesa began the first codification, incorporating vowel length and the use of ou to represent the sound /œ/.
The classical orthography came as a compromise between the old Tuscan system and the French one; the characteristic that considerably differentiates this orthography from the effective pronunciation is the method for the distinction of long and short vowels. As of today, because it has become more archaic, it is often replaced by simpler methods that use signs ö, ü for front rounded vowels and the redoubling of vowels for long vowels. The classical orthography was regularized in the 1990s by the Circolo Filologico Milanese for modern use.
The classical Milanese orthography (as edited by Circolo Filologico Milanese) has the following conventions that differ from Italian alphabet
Italian alphabet
The Italian alphabet is a variant of the Latin alphabet used by the Italian language.-Vowels:The Italian alphabet has five vowel letters, ⟨a e i o u⟩. Of those, only ⟨a⟩ represents one sound value while each of the others has two...
.
General use of accents:
- acute accent: indicates a closed sound in "e" or "o" ( /e/ and /o/ respectively) (as in Italian)
- grave accent: indicates an open sound in "e" or "o" ( /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ respectively) (as in Italian)
- circumflex accent: indicates a closed and long "o" ( /oː/ ) (the circumflex is not used in Italian)
Pronunciation of vowels and false diphthongs:
- ,
, represent open and short vowels when followed by doubled consonants or if accented at the end of a word, and close and long when followed by single consonant. represents /u/ - <ò> represents /ɔ/
represents /œ/ represents /y/; may also represent /w/ after or in the diphthong
.
Use of consonants:
- doubling: makes the preceding vowel short and open
represents either a voiced or voiceless sibilant; intervocalically, it is always voiced, and voiceless /s/ is represented with a double. Word-finally, it is always voiceless. represents /ts/ after a vowel and followed by consonant (or word-final) represents the nasalization of the preceding vowel; before another vowel or when written doubled, it represents /n/. represents the nasalization of the preceding vowel when followed by consonant or word-final; otherwise it represents /m/. represents that the preceding or are velar before a front vowel. represents /ʒ/ represents /ʃ/ represents /stʃ/
Table of pronunciation
! There is some imprecisions in this table !- The stress is normally on the penultimate syllable for words ending in vowel, on the last syllable for these ending in consonant.
Sign Context IPA International Phonetic AlphabetThe International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
Notes a followed by double consonant or accented word-finally a stress is indicated with grave accent a elsewhere aː stress is indicated with grave accent aa word-finally aː always stressed b always b c followed by consonant or by a, o, u k ci followed by a, o, u tʃ c elsewhere tʃ ch always k d always d e followed by double consonant or accented word-finally ɛ stress is indicated with grave accent e elsewhere eː stress is indicated with acute accent ee word-finally eː always stressed f always f g followed by consonant or by a, o, u ɡ gi followed by a, o, u dʒ g elsewhere dʒ devoiced word-finally gh followed by i or e ɡ devoiced word-finally i followed by double consonant or accented word-finally i stress is indicated with grave accent i preceded by consonant and followed by vowel j i elsewhere iː stress is indicated with grave accent ii word-finally iː always stressed j when not preceded by consonant j l always l m followed by consonant ◌̃ m elsewhere m n when it doesn't form a vowel with the preceding vowel or word-finally when last syllable is unstressed n n elsewhere ◌̃ nn always n o always u never stressed oo word-finally uː always stressed ò always ɔ always stressed ô always oː always stressed oeu followed by double consonant or accented word-finally œ always stressed oeu elsewhere œː always stressed p always p qu always kw r always r s word-finally, followed by voiceless consonant or word-initially s s intervocalic or followed by voiced consonant z sci always ʃ only "sc" when followed by e, i s'ci always stʃ only "s'c" when followed by e, i sgi always ʒ only "sg" when followed by e, i ss always s t always t u followed by double consonant or accented word-finally y stress is indicated with grave accent u preceded by q or g and followed by vowel, or as part of a diphthong w never stressed u elsewhere yː stress is indicated with grave accent uu word-finally yː always stressed v always v z always ts/dz/s