The Central Savinja dialect (''srednjesavinjsko narečje'',Smole, Vera. 1998. "Slovenska narečja." ''Enciklopedija Slovenije'' vol. 12, pp. 1–5. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, p. 2. ''srednja savinjščina'') is a Slovene dialect in the

Styrian dialect group The Styrian dialect group (''štajerska narečna skupina'', ''štajerščina''Logar, Tine. 1996. ''Dialektološke in jezikovnozgodovinske razprave''. Ljubljana: SAZU, p. 52.) is a group of closely related dialects of Slovene. The Lower Carniolan ...

. It is spoken in the central

Savinja The Savinja () is a river in northeast Slovenia which flows mostly in the Upper and Lower Savinja Valley ( sl, Zgornja in Spodnja Savinjska dolina) and through the cities of Celje and Laško. The Savinja is the main river of the Savinja Alps (Sl ...

Valley in the basins of the Bolska, Paka, and Hudinja rivers east of the

Upper Savinja dialect The Upper Savinja dialect (''zgornjesavinjsko narečje'',Smole, Vera. 1998. "Slovenska narečja." ''Enciklopedija Slovenije'' vol. 12, pp. 1–5. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, p. 2. ''zgornja savinjščina'' Logar, Tine. 1996. ''Dialektološke in je ...

and west of the

Central Styrian dialect The Central Styrian dialect (''srednještajersko narečje'',Smole, Vera. 1998. "Slovenska narečja." ''Enciklopedija Slovenije'' vol. 12, pp. 1–5. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, p. 2. ''osrednja štajerščina''Logar, Tine. 1996. ''Dialektološke i ...

, south of the

Mežica Mežica (; German: ''Mießdorf'') is a town in northern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Mežica. It lies on the Meža River in the traditional Slovenian province of Carinthia) near the Austrian border. The town developed close to ...

and South Pohorje dialects, and north of the Eastern Upper Carniolan, Zagorje-Trbovlje, and

Laško Laško (; german: Tüffer) is a spa town in eastern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Laško. The area is part of the traditional region of Styria. The municipality is now included in the Savinja Statistical Region. The town is locat ...

subdialects. It includes the settlements of

Trojane Trojane (; la, Atrans, german: Trojana''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 22.) is a settlement in the Municipality of Lukovica in central ...

, Špitalič,

Vransko Vransko (; german: Franz) is a small town in central Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Vransko. It lies on the western edge of the Savinja Valley. This area is part of the traditional region of Styria. The municipality is now part o ...

Topolšica Topolšica ( or ) is a settlement in the Municipality of Šoštanj in northern Slovenia. The area is part of the traditional region of Lower Styria, Styria. The municipality is now included in the Savinja Statistical Region. The Topolšica spa and ...

Šoštanj Šoštanj (; german: Schönstein) is a town in northern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Šoštanj. The area is part of the traditional region of Styria. The entire municipality is now included in the Savinja Statistical Region. Hi ...

Velenje Velenje (; german: Wöllan''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 4: ''Štajersko''. 1904. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 272.) is Slovenia's sixth-largest city, and the seat of the Municipality ...

Frankolovo Frankolovo () is a settlement in the Municipality of Vojnik in eastern Slovenia. It lies on the main road north of Vojnik towards Slovenske Konjice. The area is part of the traditional region of Styria. It is now included with the rest of the munic ...

, Vojnik, and

Celje ) , pushpin_map = Slovenia , pushpin_label_position = left , pushpin_map_caption = Location of the city of Celje in Slovenia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Cou ...

.Toporišič, Jože. 1992. ''Enciklopedija slovenskega jezika''. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, p. 303.

Phonological and morphological characteristics

The Central Savinja dialect has preserved accented short vowels. It does not have the change ''u'' > ''ü'' nor ''a'' > ''ɔ'', the diphthongs ''ou'' and ''ei'' have monophthongized but ''ie'' and ''uo'' are pronounced, and there is limited

akanye Akanye or akanje ( be, аканне, russian: а́канье, ), literally "''a''-ing", is a sound change in Slavic languages in which the phonemes or are realized as more or less close to . It is a case of vowel reduction. The most familiar ...

. Vocalic ''r'' has developed into ''ar'' and vocalic ''l'' into ''aw''. The feminine singular instrumental ending for nouns and adjectives is ''-oj/-uj'' (in contrast to standard ''o'').Zorko, Zinka. 1999. "Štajerska narečja." In Dušan Voglar (ed.), ''Enciklopedija Slovenije'', vol. 13, pp. 131–133. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, p. 132.

References

Slovene dialects in Styria (Slovenia) {{Slavic-lang-stub