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 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 south of the Drava River, starting east of

Ruše Ruše (; german: Maria Rast) is a small town in northeastern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Ruše and lies on the right bank of the Drava River west of Maribor. The area is part of the traditional region of Styria. It is now incl ...

and extending through

Maribor Maribor ( , , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, th ...

to just before

Zlatoličje Zlatoličje () is a village on the right bank of the Drava River southeast of Maribor in northeastern Slovenia. It lies in the Municipality of Starše in an area that is part of the traditional region of Styria. The municipality is now included i ...

, and extending as far south as the

Slovenske Konjice Slovenske Konjice ( or ; german: Gonobitz, in older sources also ''Gannobitz'') is a town in northeastern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Slovenske Konjice. The area is part of the traditional region of Styria. History and town ...

area. It also includes the settlements of

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 south of Maribor. The area ...

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, Styria. It is now included with the rest of the municipality in the Drava Statistica ...

(in part),

Slovenska Bistrica Slovenska Bistrica (; german: Windisch-Feistritz) is a town south of Maribor in eastern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Slovenska Bistrica, one of the largest municipalities in Slovenia. The area is part of the traditional regio ...

, and

Vitanje Vitanje (, formerly ''Vitanje trg'', sometimes ''Vitanjski trg'', german: (Markt) Weitenstein) is a small town in northeastern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Vitanje. It lies on the Hudinja River north of Celje. The area is part ...

.Toporišič, Jože. 1992. ''Enciklopedija slovenskega jezika''. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, pp. 78–79.

Phonological and morphological characteristics

The South Pohorje dialect is characterized by a non-tonal

stress accent In linguistics, and particularly phonology, stress or accent is the relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word or to a certain word in a phrase or sentence. That emphasis is typically caused by such properties as ...

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.

References

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