The Milanese dialect as commonly defined today is essentially concentrated around Milan and its metropolitan city, reaching into the northernmost part of the province of Pavia. Subdialects of Milanese - also known as dialètt arios - are spoken in the western part of the province, the eastern part, the parts to the north of the Naviglio Martesana, certain areas where the dialect becomes transitional, the southern parts, and the northern parts of the Province of Pavia. Historically, up to the late 19th century, "Milanese" was also used to define the dialects spoken in Brianza and in the areas of Varese and Lecco ; less commonly it was also used to cover the whole Western Lombard dialect area, which had in Milanese its most prestigious variety.
Orthography
As Milanese, like the Lombard language as a whole, is not an officially recognized language anywhere, there have been many different orthographic conventions, including pan-Lombard proposals, and conventions limited to Western Lombard. The de facto standard for Milanese, though, is the literary Classical Milanese orthography. Classical Milanese orthography is the oldest orthographic convention still in use and it is the one used by all writers of Milanese literature, most famously by Carlo Porta. The trigraph , used to represent the phoneme, is considered the most distinctive feature of this standard. Since the latter half of the 20th century, as a consequence of the Italianization of Lombardy with the Lombard language ceasing to be the main language of daily use in Milan, the Classical orthography has been contested and lost ground as Italian speakers often find it counterintuitive. Classical Milanese orthography, which often reflects etymology, has indeed many words closely resembling their Italian cognates, but pronunciation is often different, one of the most striking examples being orthographic doubled consonants which represent geminates in Italian but a short preceding vowel in Milanese: compare Italian and with its Milanese cognates and .
Example
English Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Milanese Pader nòster, che te seet in ciel che 'l sia faa sant el tò nòmm che 'l vegna el tò regn, che 'l sia faa 'l tò vorè, come in ciel, inscì anca in su la terra. Dann incoeu el nòster pan de tucc i dì, e perdonon i nòster peccaa, inscì come anca num ghe perdonom a quij che n'hann faa on tòrt. E menon minga in de la tentazion, ma liberon del maa, e che 'l sia inscì. Italian Padre nostro che sei nei cieli, sia santificato il tuo Nome, venga il tuo Regno, sia fatta la tua Volontà come in cielo così in terra. Dacci oggi il nostro pane quotidiano, e rimetti a noi i nostri debiti come noi li rimettiamo ai nostri debitori, e non ci indurre in tentazione, ma liberaci dal Male. Pater noster qui es in caelis / sanctificetur nomen tuum / adveniat regnum tuum / fiat voluntas tua sicut in caelo et in terra / panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie / et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris / et ne nos inducas in tentationem sed libera nos a malo.
