The Kozjak subdialect (''kozjaški govor'') is a
Slovene subdialect 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 a subdialect of the
South Pohorje dialect
The South Pohorje dialect (''južnopohorsko narečje'', ''štajerska pohorščina''Logar, Tine. 1982. "Diftongizacija in monoftongizacija v slovenskih dialektih." ''Jezik in slovstvo'' 27: 209–212, p. 211.) is a Slovene dialect in the Styrian di ...
, which it greatly resembles, and is the northernmost member of the Styrian dialect group. It encompasses the
Kozjak Mountains
The Kozjak Mountains ( sl, Kozjak) or Possruck Mountains (german: Poßruck) is a mountain chain in the Lavanttal or Noric Alps running north of the Drava along the border between the Austrian state of Styria and Slovenia. Its highest peak, the ...
north of the
River and partially extends into Austria, including the
Leutschach
Leutschach ( Slovene: ''Lučane'') is a former municipality in the district of Leibnitz in Austrian state of Styria. Since the 2015 Styria municipal structural reform, it is part of the municipality Leutschach an der Weinstraße
Leutschach an der ...
area.
Phonological and morphological characteristics
The Kozjak subdialect has the typical Styrian diphthongs ''ei'' and ''ou'' as well as two open glides as reflexes of old acute
yat
Yat or jat (Ѣ ѣ; italics: ) is the thirty-second letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet and the Rusyn alphabet.
There is also another version of yat, the iotified yat (majuscule: , minuscule: ), which is a Cyrillic character combining a ...
and neoacute ''e'' and ''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