The Kostel dialect is a Slovene dialect in the Lower Carniolan dialect group

Lower Carniolan dialect group

The Lower Carniolan dialect group is a group of closely related dialects of Slovene. The Lower Carniolan dialects are spoken in most of Lower Carniola and in the eastern half of Inner Carniola....

. It is spoken in western White Carniola

White Carniola

White Carniola is a traditional region in southeastern Slovenia on the border with Croatia and is the most southern part of the historical and traditional region of Lower Carniola. Its major towns are Metlika, Črnomelj, and Semič, and the principal river is the Kolpa, which also forms part of the...

, bordering the former Kočevje linguistic island

Mixed Kočevje subdialects

Mixed Kočevje subdialects is a catch-all category for the Slovene dialects of heterogeneous origin now spoken in the Kočevje region. The native Kočevje German population was resettled during the Second World War and the area was subsequently resettled by Slovenian speakers from various areas and...

 to the east and the Kolpa

Kupa

Kupa may refer to:*Kupa River, a river in Croatia and Slovenia*Kupa River , a river in Lithuania*Kupa River in Siberia, see Kuta River*Kupa Synagogue, a synagogue in Krakow*Kupa, Hungary, a village in Northern Hungary...

 River to the south. It also encompasses Babno Polje

Babno Polje

Babno Polje is a village in the Municipality of Loška Dolina in the Inner Carniola region of Slovenia, on the border with Croatia.The parish church in the settlement is dedicated to Saint Nicholas and belongs to the Ljubljana Archdiocese...

, Banja Loka

Banja Loka

Banja Loka is a small village in the Municipality of Kostel in southern Slovenia. The area is part of the traditional region of Lower Carniola and is now included in the Southeast Slovenia statistical region....

, Osilnica

Osilnica

Osilnica is a settlement and a municipality in southern Slovenia. It located on the left bank of the Kolpa River next to the border with Croatia...

, Trava

Trava, Loški Potok

Trava is a village in the Municipality of Loški Potok in southern Slovenia. The area is part of the traditional region of Lower Carniola and is now included in the Southeast Slovenia statistical region....

, and Draga

Draga, Loški Potok

Draga is a village in the Municipality of Loški Potok in southern Slovenia. The area is part of the traditional region of Lower Carniola and is now included in the Southeast Slovenia statistical region....

, and its features also extend into the Croatian region of Gorski Kotar

Gorski kotar

Gorski kotar is the mountainous region in Croatia between Karlovac and Rijeka. Together with Lika and the Ogulin-Plaški valley it forms Mountainous Croatia. Because 63% of its surface is forested it is popularly called the green lungs of Croatia or Croatian Switzerland...

.

Phonological and morphological characteristics

The Kostel dialect lacks pitch accent

Pitch accent

Pitch accent is a linguistic term of convenience for a variety of restricted tone systems that use variations in pitch to give prominence to a syllable or mora within a word. The placement of this tone or the way it is realized can give different meanings to otherwise similar words...

, has diphthongs of the type ie and uo, and has an a-like pronunciation of the short semivowel, a u-like pronunciation of syllabic ł, and an u reflex of ū. The dialect underwent the third accentual retraction from short and long final syllables, and newly accented e is short.