Plural inflection in Western Lombard

The general lines of diachronics of Western Lombard plural declension are drawn here, with reference to Milanese orthography:

Feminine

The bulk of feminine words ends with the desinence -a; the feminine plural is adesinential. The last vowel finds its original length (in non-final syllable you can't ear the difference) that's often long when followed by a voiced consonant, short when followed by a voiceless consonant. When the stem ends with a difficult group of consonants you can see an addition of a final -i or of a schwa between consonants (for example: in Milanese sing. scendra, plur. scendr>scender). So in adjectives, plural form and masculine form are often the same.

Masculine

The bulk of masculine words end without desinences; plural masculine is adesinential. When the stem ends with a difficult group of consonants you can see, in singular and plural, an addition of a schwa between consonants. When the addition of schwa appears unnatural, they add a final -o (pron. /u/), that in the plural is -i.

The masculine words ending in -in, and some ending in -ett, have plural in itt. The masculine words ending in -ll have plural in -j (derived from addiction of -i and fall of -ll-; you can see the same phenomenon in the origin of determinate article: sing. ell>el, plur. elli>ej>i).

Some masculin words ending in -a can be unvarying (they often are words from ancient Greek or idiomatic words to define a person; e. g. pirla = a stupid).

See also