The Lower Sava Valley dialect (posavsko narečje, posavščina) is a Slovene dialect in the Styrian dialect group

Styrian dialect group

The Styrian dialect group is a group of closely related dialects of Slovene. The Lower Carniolan dialects are spoken in central and eastern Slovenian Styria and in the Lower Sava Valley and Central Sava Valley....

, bordering on 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 the Sava Valley from Litija

Litija

Litija is a town and a municipality in central Slovenia. It is located in the valley of the river Sava, to the east of the capital Ljubljana. Traditionally, the area was situated on the border between the historical provinces of Carniola and Styria. Most of the municipality belonged to the...

 to Brežice

Brežice

Brežice is a city and municipality in eastern Slovenia in the Lower Sava Valley, near the Croatian border. The area was traditionally divided between Lower Styria and Lower Carniola...

 and along the lower course of the Savinja

Savinja

The Savinja is a river in northeast Slovenia which flows mostly in the Upper and Lower Savinja valley and through the cities of Celje and Laško. The Savinja is the main river of the Savinja Alps . It flows into Sava River at the town of Zidani Most. It has often flooded, such as in the 1960s,...

 River. It is divided into three subdialects: the Zagorje-Trbovlje subdialect

Zagorje-Trbovlje subdialect

The Zagorje-Trbovlje subdialect is a Slovene subdialect in the Styrian dialect group. It is a subdialect of the Lower Sava Valley dialect and is spoken in the Central Sava Valley, including the settlements of Zagorje ob Savi, Trbovlje, and Hrastnik.-Phonological and morphological...

, Laško subdialect

Laško subdialect

The Laško subdialect is a Slovene subdialect in the Styrian dialect group. It is a subdialect of the Lower Sava Valley dialect, extending from east of Zidani Most nearly to Jurklošter, and in the areas of Rimske Toplice and Laško....

, and Sevnica-Krško subdialect

Sevnica-Krško subdialect

The Sevnica-Krško subdialect is a Slovene subdialect in the Styrian dialect group. It is a subdialect of the Lower Sava Valley dialect, extending along both banks of the Sava River from Zidani Most to just before Brežice, and then continuing on the right bank to the Croatian border...

.

Phonological and morphological characteristics

The Lower Sava Valley dialect predominantly shares features with the Lower Carniolan dialects

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....

 but does not have 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...

. Its transitional nature is shown by its older Lower Carniolan vocalic features overlaid by more recent Styrian features.