Lombard language

The term Lombard (or Lombardic) language refers to a group of related dialects spoken in Southern Switzerland (Ticino and the Grisons) and Northern Italy (most of Lombardy and some areas of neighbouring regions). Lombard is a Western Romance language related to French, Romansh, Italian, etc. Although Italian is generally used as a written language in Lombard-speaking areas, Lombard is not mutually intelligible with Italian and the two languages belong to different branches of the Romance language family tree. Unlike most Romance languages, many Western Lombard dialects have vowel quantity Bellinzona, Switzerland (CDE - Centro di dialettologia e di etnografia, a governmental (cantonal) institution).