The South Pohorje dialect (južnopohorsko narečje, štajerska pohorščina) 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....

. It is spoken south of the Drava River, starting east of Ruše

Ruše

Ruše is a small town and a municipality in northeastern Slovenia. It lies on the right bank of the Drava River to the west of Maribor and extends south into the Pohorje hills. The area was part of the traditional region of Lower Styria...

 and extending through Maribor

Maribor

Maribor is the second largest city in Slovenia with 157,947 inhabitants . Maribor is also the largest and the capital city of Slovenian region Lower Styria and the seat of the Municipality of Maribor....

 to just before Zlatoličje

Zlatoličje

Zlatoličje is a village on the right bank of the Drava River to the southeast of Maribor in northeastern Slovenia. It lies in the Municipality of Starše in an area that was part of the traditional region of Lower Styria...

, and extending as far south as the Slovenske Konjice

Slovenske Konjice

Slovenske Konjice is a town and a municipality in northeastern Slovenia. The area was part of the traditional region of Lower Styria.- Slovenske Konjice municipality :...

 area. It also includes the settlements of Rače

Rače

Rače is a settlement in and the administrative centre of the municipality of Rače-Fram in northeastern Slovenia. It lies under the eastern Pohorje hills on the edge of the plain on the right bank of the Drava River to the south of Maribor. The area is part of the traditional region of Lower Styria...

, Spodnja Polskava

Spodnja Polskava

Spodnja Polskava is a settlement in the municipality of Slovenska Bistrica in northeastern Slovenia. The area is part of the traditional region of Lower Styria. It is now included with the rest of the municipality into the Drava statistical region....

 (in part), Slovenska Bistrica

Slovenska Bistrica

Slovenska Bistrica is a town and a municipality south of Maribor in eastern Slovenia. It is one of the largest municipalities in Slovenia. Traditionally the area was part of the Lower Styria region. The municipality is now included in the Drava statistical region. The town was established in the...

, and Vitanje

Vitanje

Vitanje is a small town and a municipality in northeastern Slovenia. It lies on the Hudinja river, to the north of Celje. Traditionally the area was part of the Lower Styria region. The municipality is now included in the Savinja statistical region...

.

Phonological and morphological characteristics

The South Pohorje dialect is characterized by a non-tonal stress accent

Stress (linguistics)

In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...

with different reflexes of old long vowels and vowels with a neocircumflex accent. It has long diphthongs of the type ei and ou, a characteristic e pronunciation of the old semivowel, open pronunciation of newly accented e and o, an o pronunciation of long a, nasalized j and nj as reflexes of soft n, and ar for syllabic r. Some new nasalized vowels have developed. Neuter nouns have become feminine.