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 seventeenth 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 . The classical orthography came as a compromise between the old Tuscan system and the French one; the characteristic that considerably differentiates this orthography from 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 the Italian alphabet.
General use of accents: acute accent: indicates a closed sound in e or o ( and respectively, as in Italian) grave accent: indicates an open sound in e or o ( and respectively, as in Italian) circumflex accent: indicates a stressed short o when otherwise would be unstressed ( ; 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 represents represents ; may also represent 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 is represented with a double . Word-finally, it is always voiceless. represents historical or 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 . represents the nasalization of the preceding vowel when followed by consonant or word-final; otherwise it represents . represents that the preceding or are velar before a front vowel. represents represents represents //
Table of pronunciation 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 Notes a (à) unstressed, stressed if followed by double consonant, or accented word-finally stress is indicated with grave accent a (à) elsewhere stress is indicated with grave accent aa word-finally always stressed b always devoiced word-finally c followed by consonant or by a, o, u ci followed by a, o, u c followed by e, i or word-finally ch followed by e, i or word-finally d always devoiced word-finally e unstressed e (è) followed by double consonant or accented word-finally always stressed; stress is sometimes indicated with grave accent e (é) elsewhere always stressed; stress is indicated with acute accent ee word-finally always stressed f always g followed by consonant or by a, o, u gi followed by a, o, u g followed by e, i or word-finally devoiced word-finally gh followed by e, i or word-finally devoiced word-finally i (ì) followed by double consonant or accented word-finally stress is indicated with grave accent i preceded by consonant and followed by vowel i (ì) elsewhere stress is indicated with grave accent ii word-finally always stressed j when not preceded by consonant l always m followed by consonant m elsewhere n when it doesn't form a vowel with the preceding vowel or word-finally when last syllable is unstressed n elsewhere nn word-finally o stressed in a non-final open syllable o elsewhere oo word-finally always stressed ò always always stressed ô word-finally always stressed oeu followed by double consonant always stressed oeu elsewhere always stressed p always qu always followed by a vowel other than u r always s word-finally, followed by voiceless consonant or word-initially s intervocalic or followed by voiced consonant sci followed by a, o, u sc followed by e, i or word-finally s'ci followed by a, o, u // s'c followed by e, i // sgi followed by a, o, u sg followed by e, i ss between vowels t always u (ù) followed by double consonant or accented word-finally stress is indicated with grave accent u between q or g and a vowel, or as part of a diphthong never stressed u (ù) elsewhere stress is indicated with grave accent uu word-finally always stressed v always devoiced word-finally z always variable; always devoiced / word-finally
References