Bustocco and Legnanese dialect

Bustocco and Legnanese are two similar dialects of the Western Lombard language, spoken in the areas of Busto Arsizio (Province of Varese) and Legnano (Province of Milan).

They are characterised by the Ligurian substratum. While Legnanese is closer to the Milanese dialect, Bustocco is very similar to the modern Ligurian language. In fact, there is the unstressed vowel u at the end of masculine nouns and other words (e.g. Bustocco gatu, secu, coldu, büceu, candu = Legnanese gatt, secch, cald, bicér, quand) and the elimination of some intervocalic consonants (e.g. Bustocco lauà = Legnanese lavurà). In both dialects the stressed a sounds like a mix between a and o.

A comic theatral group called I Legnanesi uses Legnanese (with simplified grammar and lexicon heavily based on Italian) in its shows.

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