The North White Carniolan dialect (severnobelokranjsko narečje) 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 northern 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...

 north of the line from Kanižarica

Kanižarica

Kanižarica is a settlement to the southwest of the town of Črnomelj in the White Carniola area of southeastern Slovenia. The area is part of the traditional region of Lower Carniola and is now included in the Southeast Slovenia statistical region....

 to Črnomelj

Crnomelj

Črnomelj is a town and municipality in southeastern Slovenia. It lies on the left bank of the Lahinja and Dobličica rivers. The municipality is at the heart of the area of White Carniola, the southeastern part of the traditional region of Lower Carniola...

. It includes the settlements of Semič

Semic

Semič is a market town and a municipality in Slovenia in the traditional region of White Carniola in southeastern Slovenia. The municipality is included in the Southeast Slovenia statistical region. It gets its name from Semenič Castle that used to stand on a hill above the settlement...

 and Metlika

Metlika

Metlika is a town and municipality in the southeastern Slovenia. It lies on the left bank of the river Kolpa on the border with Croatia. The municipality is at the heart of the area of Bela Krajina, the southeastern part of the traditional region of Lower Carniola. It is now included in the...

.

Phonological and morphological characteristics

The North White Carniolan dialect lacks a 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...

 and underwent the third accentual retraction, which also applied to long syllables. There was no early mixing with Croatian

Croatian language

Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...

in this dialect.