The Kyustendil dialect is a Bulgarian dialect, member of the

Southwestern Bulgarian dialects The Southwestern Bulgarian dialects are a group of Bulgarian dialects which are located west of the yat boundary and are part of the Western Bulgarian dialects. The range of the Southwestern dialects on the territory of Bulgaria includes most of ...

, which is spoken in the region of

Kyustendil Kyustendil ( bg, Кюстендил ) is a town in the far west of Bulgaria, the capital of the Kyustendil Province, a former bishopric and present Latin Catholic titular see. The town is situated in the southern part of the Kyustendil Valley, ...

in central western Bulgaria. It borders on the Transitional dialects to the north, the

Dupnitsa dialect The Dupnitsa dialect is a Bulgarian dialect, member of the Southwestern Bulgarian dialects, which is spoken in the region of Dupnitsa in central western Bulgaria. It is transitional between the Samokov dialect to the east and the Blagoevgrad-Petr ...

to the east and the Blagoevgrad-Petrich dialect to the south. It is closely related to the Dupnitsa dialect.

Phonological and morphological characteristics

* щ/жд (~) for Proto-Slavic ~ (as in Standard Bulgarian) - ''леща, между'' (lentils, between). The future tense particle, however, is ''че'': ''че че'темe'' vs. Standard Bulgarian ''ще четем'' (we will read) * Vowel a for Old Bulgarian ѫ (yus): ''маж'' vs. formal Bulgarian ''мъж'' (man). Limited number of u reflexes of yus (as in the

Samokov Samokov ( bg, Самоков ) is a town in Sofia Province in the southwest of Bulgaria. It is situated in a basin between the mountains Rila and Vitosha, 55 kilometres from the capital Sofia. Due to the suitable winter sports conditions, Sam ...

and the

): ''пупка'' vs. Standard Bulgarian ''пъпка'' (pimple) * Vowel o for Old Bulgarian ъ in suffixes and prefixes and most roots and a limited number of a reflexes in certain roots: ''сос него'' vs. Standard Bulgarian ''със него'' (with him), ''бочва'' vs. Standard Bulgarian ''бъчва'' (cask) but ''вашка'' vs. Standard Bulgarian ''въшка'' (louse) * Vocalic r for Old Bulgarian ръ/рь instead of the combination ръ/ър (~) in Standard Bulgarian - ''дрво'' instead of ''дърво'' (tree). * The reflex of Old Bulgarian лъ/ль is: : Before non-labial consonant - schwa (): ''съза'' vs. formal Bulgarian ''сълза'' : Before labial consonant - u: ''вуна'' vs. formal Bulgarian ''вълна'' (wool) * Verb ending -м in verbs of the first and second conjugation: ''чет'ем'' vs. formal Bulgarian ''чет'ъ'' (I read) * Adverbial participal on ''-ечки'' (vs. ''-ейки/айки'' in Standard Bulgarian): ''играечки'' vs. formal Bulgarian ''играейки'' (while playing) * Еnding йe instead of formal Bulgarian и for multi-syllable masculine nouns (''галабйе'' instead of ''гълъби'') * Dynamic stress For other phonological and morphological characteristics typical for all Southwestern dialects, cf.

Sources

Стойков, Стойко: Българска диалектология, Акад. изд. "Проф. Марин Дринов", 200

{{Bulgarian dialects Dialects of the Bulgarian language Kyustendil