Ossolano
Encyclopedia
Ossolano is the dialect
spoken in the Ossola
valley in North West Italy
. It is an umbrella name for a myriad of dialects spoken in the main Ossola valley and the other seven valleys and their subvalley that spread from it. As the territory is very mountainous, many different variations of this language exist. They are mostly intelligible to one another, save for some specific words that seem to have arisen only in some villages and not others. For instance "cat" in mainstream Ossolano is "gat", but in Mozziese is "sciandrun" (the "cinder-one", due to domesticated mountain cats' habit to roll up in front of the fire in mountain huts). Ossolano belongs to the larger family of Insubric languages to which Milanese
belongs.
Perhaps the most famous poet in the Ossolan language is Giovanni Leoni (affectionately known as "Ul Torototela", the bard), merchant, sea farer and alpinist who still inspires the locals.
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
spoken in the Ossola
Ossola
The Ossola is an area of Italy situated to the north of Lago Maggiore. It lies within the Province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola. Its principal river is the Toce, and its most important town Domodossola....
valley in North West Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. It is an umbrella name for a myriad of dialects spoken in the main Ossola valley and the other seven valleys and their subvalley that spread from it. As the territory is very mountainous, many different variations of this language exist. They are mostly intelligible to one another, save for some specific words that seem to have arisen only in some villages and not others. For instance "cat" in mainstream Ossolano is "gat", but in Mozziese is "sciandrun" (the "cinder-one", due to domesticated mountain cats' habit to roll up in front of the fire in mountain huts). Ossolano belongs to the larger family of Insubric languages to which Milanese
Milanese
Milanese is the central variety of the Western Lombard language spoken in the city and province of Milan....
belongs.
Perhaps the most famous poet in the Ossolan language is Giovanni Leoni (affectionately known as "Ul Torototela", the bard), merchant, sea farer and alpinist who still inspires the locals.