Milanese Page

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Contents

• Introduction to Milan
• The language of Milan
• Links
• Contact Information

Introduction to Milan

You are very welcome to these Milanese pages. Milan is a city in northern Italy. It is the capital of Lombardy, a region lying north of the Po river. It is surrounded by Piemonte (west), Emilia (south), Veneto, Trentino and Süd-Tirol (east) and Switzerland (north).

Lombardy extends from the Alps to the Po River, and within its borders lie towering mountain ranges, a vast agricultural plain, deep glacial lakes and quiet hill country. The dramatic glacial lake district and the snowy northern mountains are popular tourist destinations. The Lombardy lakes stretch from the eastern shore of Lake Maggiore to Lake Garda, and include some of the most beautiful scenery in the world: dolomite cliffs frame mountain villages that hug the sapphire blue water, with lemon and olive groves and vineyards terraced into the steep rock. Leonardo chose the scenery of the lakes for the background of the Mona Lisa, and Hemingway made them a setting in A Farewell to Arms. Lake Como is the most breath taking of the lakes, with sheer cliffs and the snow covered Alps as a backdrop. A peninsula on Italy's largest lake, Garda, contains the medieval walled town of Sirmione and the remains of an ancient Roman villa. Stunning Lake Maggiore contains the three picturesque islands of the Borromees, while the topography of Lake Iseo is more rugged, with steep slopes dropping into deep blue water, giving it a fiord like appearance.

The following is a map of Lombardy.

A symbol of Milan is "La Madonina" (lah-mah-doo-NEE-nah), a golden statue of the Virgin Mary, placed on the highest point of the main cathedral (El Dòmm, in Italian: Il Duomo).

El Dòmm de Milan.La Madonìna.

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The language of Milan

• Introduction
• Alphabet and pronunciation
• Nouns
• Adjectives
• Pronouns
• Adverbs
• Prepositions
• Verbs

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Alphabet and pronunciation

The Milanese alphabet consists of 21 letters, 5 vowels and 16 consonants:

a b c d e f g h i l m n o p q r s t u v z.

The vowels are pronounced as follows:

Consonants are pronounced as in Italian, with a few exceptions, which are explained in the following table.

Nouns

There are two genders in Milanese: masculine and feminine. No neuter or common gender is present: all nouns are either masculine or feminine. The definite article shows which gender the noun belongs to. The following table shows the definite articles used with "fioeu" (boy, masculine) and "tôsa" (girl, feminine). Don't worry about the strange plural form "tosànn": it is irregular.

As you can see, the definite article has different forms for masculine and feminine (EL, LA), but only when the noun is singular. The plural form (I) is common for both genders.

EL becomes L' (with apostrophy) before vowels and 'L after vowels: for example

L'òmm (the man), l'ultim (the last), la tôsa e 'l fioeu (the girl and the boy).

LA becomes L' before vowels:

L'ôngia (the nail), l'èrba (the grass).

The indefinite article is:

ON is pronounced "oon" before vowels and nasal "oo" (I'll represent this sound with õõ) before consonants. After a vowel it becomes 'N if the following word begins with an unstressed vowel:

On òmm (pronounced "oo - nAWm", a man), on ciôcch ("õõ - chOOk", a drunk man), Gh'è on òmm (there's a man), Gh'è 'n odôr (there's a smell).

ONA becomes ON' before vowels. If the preceeding word ends in a vowel you can have 'NA and 'N':

Ona dònna (oo-nah-dAW-nah, a woman), on'amìsa (oo-nah-mEE-zah, a friend), gh'è 'na dònna (there's a woman), gh'è 'n'amìsa (there's a friend).

Adjectives (under construction)

Demonstrative adjectives

In English we have the following cases: THIS (plural: THESE) and THAT (plural: THOSE).

THIS is used for "things" close to the speaker and THAT to determine far objects.

In Milanese there is a third possibility: we can distinguish things far both from the speaker and the listener from things far from the speaker but close to the listener.

The demonstrative adjectives are usually made of to parts: one which is placed before the noun and one placed right after the noun.

Examples:

This book is really interesting - Chél liber chì l'è pròpi interessànt.

Have you already spoken with these girls? - T'hee giamò parlaa con sti tosànn (chì)?

Pronouns (under construction)

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns have two forms: stressed and unstressed. With a verb the unstressed form is always used, The stressed form is used for emphasis. If you look at the following table, you will see that many unstressed forms are between brackets, which means that they are no longer in use today.

Subject pronouns

The subject personal pronouns are used vith verbs as follows:

Mi parli - I speak; ti te parlet - you speak; lu el parla - he speaks; lee la parla - she speaks etc.

The stressed form can be understood, so you can say "te parlet" for "you speak", but the unstressed form, is always expressed (el parla - he speaks; la parla - she speaks).

The unstressed pronoun "i" was used in old Milanese (lôr i parlen - they speak). Today only a few speakers use it. It is well preserved in other Lombard dialects. The pronoun "a" is today very rare (mi a mangi - I eat).

In old Milanese the interrogative form was made with inversion, that is putting the unstressed pronoun after the verb: "cantel?" (does he sing) instead of "el canta?", which is used today; "voeurela?" (does she want) for "la voeur?" etc. This construction is still used in other dialects in Lombardy.

When you address a person who is older than you or someone you do not know well, you must use the polite forms: "Lu, el" to address a man and "Lee, la" for a woman. Examples: "Se Lu el voeur, vègni" (if you want, I come). To a friend you would say: "Se ti te voeuret, vègni".

Adverbs (under construction)

Prepositions (under construction)

Verbs (under construction)

The conjugation of Milanese verbs is rather complex. The basis is Latin, which had four different conjugations. The Italian language has three conjugation today, Milanese still has four. Have a look at the following table comparing the infinitives in the three languages. Note: as I do not have Latin fonts, I use ê to indicate a long "e" and ë for short "e".

First conjugation: regular verbs in -à

PARLÀ (to speak)

Second conjugation: regular verbs in -è

VEDÈ (to see)

Third conjugation: regular verbs in consonant

The verbs belonging to this class have the same endings as those of the second conjugation. The infinitive is the only difference (there is no final -è for the verbs of the 3rd conjugation).

Fourth conjugation: regular verbs in -ì

SENTÌ (to hear)

Links

• Rete civica di Milano
• Tiago: A Milanese in Brazil

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Contact me

Please, do not hesitate to contact me
Lorgaire

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Last revised: agosto 18, 1999.