Legnanese dialect
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.
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.
[4] The linguistic influence of the Celts on the local language was striking, so much so that even today the dialect of Legnano is classified as "Gallo-Roman".
[5] This has given rise to a debate among linguists that has led to great caution in attributing a given phonetic feature of the Legnanese dialect to the Ligurian or Celtic substratum.
[6] The local population suffered an administrative, economic, demographic and cultural regression that led to the formation of small communities isolated from each other.
[8] The town of Legnano, in fact, represented an easy access to the Milanese countryside for those coming from the north, since it was located at the outlet of the Olona Valley, which ends in Castellanza;[9] such a gateway therefore had to be closed and strongly defended to prevent an attack on Milan, which was also facilitated by the presence of an important road that had existed since Roman times, the Via Severiana Augusta, which connected Mediolanum (modern Milan) with the Verbannus Lacus (Lake Verbano, i.e., Lake Maggiore).
[12] From the Middle Ages, an increasing number of Milanese noble families began to stay in Legnano at various times of the year and to purchase properties in the town.
[17] Already in the Middle Ages, it was common for some Milanese noble families to stay in Legnano at different times of the year, which helped to accentuate this tendency.
[19] Specifically, the phenomenon of their elision - with the exception of -a - began around the 9th century in France, Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy, that is, in areas once dominated by the Celts.
[19][note 4] For example, in the Milanese dialect one says temp ("time"), oeucc ("eye") and oreggia ("ear"), while in Legnano the terms used to express the same concepts are tempu, ögiu and urégia.
[8] For example, in Busto Arsizio one says düu ("hard") and udùi ("smell"), while in Legnano the same concepts are expressed with dür and udùr.
[20] In fact, in Busto Arsizio one says candìa, uona and sia to refer to "candle", "Olona" and "evening", while in Legnano one uses the terms candìra, Urona and sira.
[22] Once the specific term in the Legnano dialect to refer to the rainbow was rasciùm (later the Legnanese began to use the word arcubalén to express the same concept).
Their comedies, the most famous example of en travesti theater in Italy,[33] have as their subject satirical characters gravitating around a typical Lombard courtyard [it], the most prominent of which are Teresa, Mabilia, and Giovanni.
The company, founded in Legnano in 1949 by Felice Musazzi, Tony Barlocco, and Luigi Cavalleri, is among the most important examples in Europe of dialect theater.
