The Ticinese dialect is the set of dialects, belonging to the Alpine and Western branch of the Lombard language, spoken in the northern part of the Canton of Ticino (Sopraceneri); the dialects of the region can generally vary from valley to valley, often even between single localities, while retaining the mutual intelligibility that is typical of the Lombard linguistic continuum. Ticinese koiné refers instead to a koiné form used by speakers of local dialects (particularly those diverging from the koiné itself, as, e.g., Leventinese, etc.) when communicating with speakers of other Western Lombard dialects of Ticino, the Grisons (collectively known as Swiss Italian) or Italian Lombardy.

Status

Ticinese is generally more lively than the Western Lombard varieties spoken in Italy, with a significant number of young speakers. Some radio and television programmes in Ticinese, mostly comedies are broadcast by the Italian language broadcasting company RTSI. A dictionary and some studies on the Ticinese variants are published by CDE – Centro di dialettologia e di etnografia, a cantonal research institution.

Examples

Some possible expressions and idioms: