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 dialects are spoken in central and eastern
Slovenian Styria
Styria (, ), also known as Slovenian Styria (; ) or Lower Styria (; ) to differentiate it from Austrian Styria, is a traditional region in northeastern Slovenia, comprising the southern third of the former Duchy of Styria. The population of St ...
and in the
Lower Sava Valley and
Central Sava Valley
The Central Sava Valley () is a valley in the Sava Hills and a geographic region along the Sava in central Slovenia, now constituting the Central Sava Statistical Region. The region consists of three municipalities: Zagorje ob Savi, Trbovlje, an ...
.
Phonological and morphological characteristics
Among other features, this group is characterized by loss of
pitch accent
A pitch-accent language is a type of language that, when spoken, has certain syllables in words or morphemes that are prominent, as indicated by a distinct contrasting pitch (music), pitch (tone (linguistics), linguistic tone) rather than by vol ...
, tonemically high and lengthened accented syllables, lengthening of accented short syllables, and frequent development of ''a'' > ''ɔ'', and ''u'' > ''ü'' in the eastern part of the territory.
Individual dialects and subdialects
*
Central Savinja dialect (''srednjesavinjsko narečje'', ''srednja savinjščina'')
*
Upper Savinja dialect (''zgornjesavinjsko narečje'', ''zgornja savinjščina''
)
**
Solčava subdialect (''solčavski govor'')
*
Central Styrian dialect (''srednještajersko narečje'', ''osrednja štajerščina''
)
*
South Pohorje dialect (''južnopohorsko narečje'', ''štajerska pohorščina'')
**
Kozjak subdialect (''kozjaški govor'')
*
Kozje-Bizeljsko dialect (''kozjansko-bizeljsko narečje'')
*
Lower Sava Valley dialect (''posavsko narečje'', ''posavščina''
[Toporišič, Jože. 1994. "Fran Ramovš kot narečjeslovec." ''Slavistična revija'' 42: 159–170, p. 168.])
**
Zagorje-Trbovlje subdialect (''zagorsko-trboveljski govor'')
**
Laško subdialect (''laški govor'')
**
Sevnica-Krško subdialect (''sevniško-krški govor'')
References
Slovene dialects in Styria (Slovenia)
{{Slavic-lang-stub