The following notes are essentially based on the variety of Eastern Lombard spoken in
Brescia. The basic principles are generally valid also for the other varieties but local discrepancies can be found. Eastern Lombard has 9
vowels and 20
consonants.
Consonants The
voiced consonants , , , , , never occur at the end of a word. This phenomenon, common to other languages (including
German,
Catalan,
Dutch,
Turkish and
Russian), is called
final devoicing. The phoneme only occurs in loanwords, often borrowings from Italian. For example,
scià, "to ski" (from Italian
sciare) is pronounced . The phoneme is pronounced before a consonant. This never occurs inside a word as the segment + consonant does not exist in Eastern Lombard. However, it does occur when appears word-finally preceding another word which begins with a consonant. For example: ::*
I è nacc vià = "they have gone away"
i è nacc a spas = "they have gone for a leisurely walk" ::*
Töcc du = "both", "each of the two"
töcc öndes = "all of the eleven" The approximants and are distinct phonemes from the vocalic sounds , . This can be seen in the following examples: ::* = "how much" = "brooded" ::* = "dish" = "bitten" Locally, the alveolar fricative is replaced by the glottal fricative . This mainly happens in the prealpine valleys of the provinces of Bergamo and Brescia; thus
Brèssa ("Brescia") is pronounced instead of . However, even in areas where this phenomenon is the rule, there are some interesting exceptions to take in account. Words like
grassie ("thanks") are never pronounced . At present, the most common pronunciation is but a more genuine outcome (and often preferred by aged people) would be .{{cite book Other examples for this feature: •
Licensià ("to dismiss, to fire") = / •
Cristià ("Christian") = / •
Pasiù ("passion") = /
Assimilation Regressive
assimilation at word boundaries is common in Eastern Lombard. Assimilation can be either complete or partial. Complete assimilation occurs when two occlusive sounds fall in contact. In this case the first occlusive is completely absorbed by the second and the resulting sound has all the features of the second consonant but is notably lengthened. For example: •
el ga fat pàla = • ''l'è tròp calt'' ("it's too hot") = •
el gat bianc ("the white cat") = The same phenomenon occurs when an occlusive consonant precedes a nasal or a liquid consonant. For example: •
en gat négher ("a black cat") = • ''l'è tròp mis'' = •
so ché strac mórt ("I'm dead tired")= Complete assimilation can also occur when an occlusive precedes a fricative. For example: ''l'è nit vért'' = . When a sequence of nasal+occlusive falls in contact with another occlusive or a fricative, the first occlusive is completely elided and the nasal undergoes partial assimilation. In this case no lengthening occurs. For example: • ''el ga 'l sanch blö'' ("he's got blue blood")= • ''l'è lonc fés'' = But when an occlusive precedes , assimilation involves both consonants and the result is an affricate sound: • ''l'è nit zó ècc'' = • ''l'è tròp zalt'' ("it's too yellow") = The phoneme can undergo assimilation in
place of articulation with a following consonant. Thus, the /n/ in and is a velar , the /n/ in and is a labiodental . Within a word, the phoneme is never transcribed before and , where is written instead. Nasal assimilation, including to , also takes place across word boundaries. For example: •
en ca ("a dog") = •
vàghen fò ("hurry up") = • ''l'an pasàt'' ("last year") =
Vowels Eastern Lombard has 9 vocalic sounds: Only three vocalic phonemes occur in unstressed final syllables: in open syllables only, and and in both open and closed syllables. Other vowels can occur in final syllables in loanwords. Locally, the phoneme is pronounced when it appears as last sound of the word in an unstressed syllable (actually slightly more close than cardinal ). For example: •
lüna ("moon") = •
setemana ("week") =
Unstressed vowel system reduction and local variability Some vowel contrasts are eliminated in unstressed syllables. For example, in the urban Brescian variety, and no longer contrast. Thus, the word
robà ("to steal") can be pronounced both and , with almost no difference noticed by speakers. In addition, a further variant is also possible, though in this case, a difference is noticed by speakers but it is considered a local variant and no loss of intelligibility results. The sounds and also no longer contrast in unstressed syllables, and therefore the word
vedèl ("calf") can be pronounced or . However, when affected by vowel harmony (see
below), the unstressed sounds /, /, and become , , and respectively. In conclusion, it is possible to say that only five contrastive vowel qualities are found in unstressed syllables: //, /, , /, (but with the not completely separated from /). Some examples: •
molà ("to let go, to release") •
mölà ("to grind") •
malàt ("sick, ill") •
pelàt ("bald") •
Milà ("Milan") The situation can differ for other Eastern Lombard varieties, however, and the rules of the unstressed vowel system vary according to the area. For example, in
Franciacorta, a province of Brescia, the sounds and are regularly replaced by and in pretonic position: •
mulà instead of
molà •
Ruàt ("
Rovato") instead of
Roàt •
Üspedalèt ("
Ospitaletto") instead of
Öspedalèt Since in unstressed position these vocalic sounds are not contrastive, these local variants do not compromise reciprocal intelligibility.
Vowel harmony Certain varieties of Eastern Lombard (mostly in Brescian area) exhibit a process of regressive
vowel harmony involving the feature of vowel height. When the stress falls on a close vowel ( or ) the preceding vowels shift their height, becoming close as well ( and become , while and become ). The vowel is not affected by this process and acts as opaque vowel blocking the harmonization process.{{cite book This phenomenon affects all the words independent of the word's function. Because the
diminutive and
augmentative are formed with the suffixes
-ì and
-ù (feminine
-ìna and
-ùna) respectively, this process is easily observable in nouns: •
cortèl ("knife") •
curtilì ("small knife") •
curtilù ("big knife") As already mentioned, the vowel acts as opaque vowel which blocks the harmonization process: •
fontàna ("fountain") •
fontanì ("small fountain"), not
funtanì •
öspedàl ("hospital") •
öspedalì ("small hospital"), not
üspidalì But vowels that occur after the and before the stressed vowel are still affected: •
mortadèla ("
mortadella") •
mortadilìna ("small mortadella") In these cases variants like
funtanì and
üspedalì (but not
üspidalì) or
murtadilìna are accepted (or locally preferred) but fall under the normal unstressed vowel variability. Verbs are affected by this process in their conjugation, when the inflection contains a stressed (there are no verbal suffixes containing a stressed ). For example: •
öler ("to want") •
öle ("I want") •
ülìt ("wanted", past participle) •
ülìf ("you want", second person plural) •
ülìef ("you wanted", second person plural imperfect indicative) Adjectives formed with the suffix
-ùs (feminine
-ùza) also exhibit this rule: •
póra ("fear") •
purús,
purúza ("fearful person") ==Orthography==