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 in jezikovnozgodovinske razprave''. Ljubljana: SAZU, p. 52.) 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 watersheds of the

Voglajna The Voglajna () is a river in Styria, Slovenia. The river is long (including its source river, the Ločnica), and its catchment area is . Its source is Lake Slivnica ( sl, Slivniško jezero) near Slivnica pri Celju. It passes Šentjur, the rui ...

and upper

Sotla The Sutla (Croatian) or Sotla ( Slovene) is a river flowing through Slovenia and Croatia, mostly forming their border. It is a tributary to the Sava, itself a tributary to the Danube. It is long and has a watershed area of . Overview The Sutla fl ...

rivers in the south and the Central

Dravinja The Dravinja (german: Drann, ) is the largest tributary of the Drava River in Slovenia. It is long. Its source is on the Pohorje Massif southwest of Mount Rogla about 1,150 m above sea level. The river passes Zreče, the town of Slovenske Konji ...

Valley in the north, extending from

Štore Štore () is a town in eastern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Štore. It lies on the Voglajna River, just east of Celje. The area is part of the traditional region of Styria. The municipality is now included in the Savinja Stat ...

in the west to

Rogatec Rogatec (; german: RohitschSuppan, Arnold. 1996. ''Jugoslawien und Österreich 1918–1938: Bilaterale Außenpolitik im Europäischen Umfeld.'' Vienna: Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, p. 663.) is a small town in eastern Slovenia, on the border ...

in the east, and from

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 Styria. It is now included with the rest of the municipality in the Drava Statistical Region. The ...

and

Pragersko Pragersko (, in older sources ''Pragarsko'', german: Pragerhof) is a small town in the Municipality of Slovenska Bistrica in northeastern Slovenia. History The former Austrian Southern Railway from Vienna to Ljubljana and Sežana runs through the ...

in the north to

Podčetrtek Podčetrtek ( or ; german: Windisch Landsberg) is a settlement in eastern Slovenia by the river Sotla. It is the seat of the Municipality of Podčetrtek. The area belongs to the traditional region of Styria. It is now included in the Savinja Stat ...

in the south.Toporišič, Jože. 1992. ''Enciklopedija slovenskega jezika''. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, p. 304.

Phonological and morphological characteristics

The Central Styrian dialect is characterized by diphthongal reflexes of the high vowels (''ii/ei, uu/ou'') and close mid vowels (''ei/ai, ou/au''), lengthening of some short accented vowels, a

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 ...

, non-parallel reflexes of ''o'' and ''e'' (the latter being open), ''a'' > ''ɔ'', ''ər'' > ''ar'', ''v'' > ''f'' before voiceless consonants and in final position, and a small degree of vowel reduction. Final-syllable accent is morphologically unknown.

References

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