Legnanese dialect

Legnanese dialect^{[note 1]} (native name legnanés, IPA: [leɲaˈneːs]) is a dialect of the Lombard language (belonging to the western branch) that is spoken around Legnano, a municipality in the metropolitan city of Milan, Lombardy. It is spoken by about 30 percent of the population of the area in which it is spread.^[1]

Legnano, starting in the 11th century, began to bond with Milan. The village of Legnano represented, for those coming from the north, the gateway to the Milanese countryside and thus had an important strategic function for the city of Milan. The link between Legnano and Milan also influenced the Legnano vernacular, which began to differentiate itself from the neighboring Bustocco dialect. Due to the frequent contacts between the two cities, the Milanese dialect began to "contaminate" the dialect spoken in Legnano. Despite this trend, the Legnano dialect continued to preserve - over the centuries - a considerable difference from the Milanese dialect.

An important distinctive phonetic trait that is present in Legnanese and neighboring Bustocco, and that differentiates these dialects from the idioms of contiguous isoglosses, is the preservation of unaccented final vowels. However, due to the contamination of the Milanese dialect, the Legnano vernacular, unlike the Bustocco dialect, does not preserve the final atonal vowel for many words. Another feature that differentiates the Legnano dialect from the Bustocco dialect concerns the intervocalic -r. In the Legnanese vernacular it has been preserved, while in the Bustocco vernacular it has been eliminated.

The plays of the Italian dialect theater company "I Legnanesi" are written in the Legnanese dialect.

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