The Škofja Loka dialect ( sl, škofjeloško narečje, ''škofjeloščina'') is a Slovene dialect in the

Rovte dialect group The Rovte dialect group (''rovtarska narečna skupina'', ''rovtarščina'') is a group of closely related dialects of Slovene. The Rovte dialects are spoken in the mountainous areas of west-central Slovenia, on the border between the Slovenian L ...

. It encompasses the local dialects of

Škofja Loka Škofja Loka (; german: Bischoflack) is a town in Slovenia. It is the economic, cultural, educational, and administrative center of the Municipality of Škofja Loka in Upper Carniola. It has about 12,000 inhabitants. Geography Škofja Loka lies a ...

and the nearby settlements of Bitnje and Reteče.Toporišič, Jože. 1992. ''Enciklopedija slovenskega jezika''. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, p. 322. The

Škofja Loka Passion Play The ''Škofja Loka Passion Play'' ( la, Processio locopolitana, sl, Škofjeloški pasijon) is the oldest play in Slovene language, Slovene. In its current form, it was a penitential Passion (Christ), Passion procession. It was written on the bas ...

, the oldest Slovene drama play, was written in the first half of the 18th century in the old Škofja Loka dialect.

Phonological and morphological characteristics

The Škofja Loka dialect lacks

pitch accent A pitch-accent language, when spoken, has word accents in which one syllable in a word or morpheme is more prominent than the others, but the accentuated syllable is indicated by a contrasting pitch ( linguistic tone) rather than by loudness ( ...

, which has been attributed to the influence of German settlement. It has very narrow ''o'' and ''e'' vowels, pretonic ''e'' and ''o'' have raised to ''i'' and ''u'', and the offglide ' has sometimes been lost (e.g., ''volk'' ok> ok'wolf'). The dialect's consonant structure shares many features with the

Upper Carniolan dialect This article uses Logar transcription. The Upper Carniolan dialect ( , ) is a major Slovene dialect, known for extensive syncope, monophthongization of diphthongs, and loss of neuter gender. It is spoken in most (but not all) of Upper Carnio ...

and

Selca dialect The Selca dialect (''selško narečje'', ''selščina'') is a Slovene dialect in the Upper Carniolan dialect group. It is spoken in the Selca Sora Valley, north of a line from Porezen to Mount Lubnik (1025 m), and south of a line running west of ...

References

Slovene dialects {{Slavic-lang-stub