Lower Carniolan dialect
Encyclopedia
The Lower Carniolan dialect (dolenjsko narečje, dolenjščina) is a major Slovene dialect in the Lower Carniolan dialect group
. It is one of the two central Slovene dialects and was the original foundation for standard Slovene along with the Ljubljana
urban dialect. It is spoken in most of Lower Carniola
(southeast of Ljubljana) as far west as Cerknica
and including the settlements of Grosuplje
and Ribnica, and encompassing the area of the Eastern Lower Carniolan subdialect
.
. It is characterized by extensive ei, ie, and uo diphthongs developed from long vowels as well as an a-colored semivowel. The change o > u (ukanje) occurs in the dialect, as well as some degree of akanye
. There is a high degree of syncope, vowel mutation caused by soft consonants, final short accented syllables, a short infinitive, and relatively well-preserved quantitative differences between long and short syllables.
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 one of the two central Slovene dialects and was the original foundation for standard Slovene along with the Ljubljana
Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
urban dialect. It is spoken in most of Lower Carniola
Lower Carniola
Lower Carniola was a kreis of the historical Habsburg crown land of Carniola from 1849 till 1919 and is nowadays a traditional region of Slovenia. Its center is Novo Mesto, while other urban centers include Kočevje, Grosuplje, Krško, Trebnje, Mirna, Črnomelj, Semič, and Metlika.-See also:* Upper...
(southeast of Ljubljana) as far west as Cerknica
Cerknica
Cerknica is a town and municipality in the Kras region of southwestern Slovenia, with a population of 10,284 . It belongs to the traditional region of Inner Carniola....
and including the settlements of Grosuplje
Grosuplje
Grosuplje is a town and a municipality in central Slovenia. It lies just south of the capital Ljubljana in the traditional region of Lower Carniola. It is now included in the Central Slovenia statistical region....
and Ribnica, and encompassing the area of the Eastern Lower Carniolan subdialect
Eastern Lower Carniolan subdialect
The Eastern Lower Carniolan subdialect is a Slovene subdialect in the Lower Carniolan dialect group. It is spoken south of the Lower Sava Valley dialect in the watersheds of the Mirna and Temenica rivers, east of a line running from west of Trebnje and west of Novo Mesto to the lower Krka Valley...
.
Phonological and morphological characteristics
The Lower Carniolan dialect generally has a pitch accentPitch 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...
. It is characterized by extensive ei, ie, and uo diphthongs developed from long vowels as well as an a-colored semivowel. The change o > u (ukanje) occurs in the dialect, as well as some degree of akanye
Akanye
Akanye or akanje is a phonological phenomenon in Slavic languages in which speakers pronounce the sound a instead of o. The most familiar example is probably Russian akanye...
. There is a high degree of syncope, vowel mutation caused by soft consonants, final short accented syllables, a short infinitive, and relatively well-preserved quantitative differences between long and short syllables.