The Gail Valley dialect ( sl, ziljsko narečje, ''ziljščina''
[Logar, Tine. 1996. ''Dialektološke in jezikovnozgodovinske razprave''. Ljubljana: SAZU]) is the westernmost
Slovene dialect in the
Carinthian dialect group
The Carinthian dialect group (''koroška narečna skupina'', ''koroščina''Logar, Tine. 1996. ''Dialektološke in jezikovnozgodovinske razprave''. Ljubljana: SAZU.) is a group of closely related dialects of Slovene, a South Slavic language. T ...
, spoken in parts of southern
Carinthia
Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Bavarian group. Carin ...
in
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, in the northeasternmost part of the
Province of Udine
The province of Udine ( it, provincia di Udine, fur, provincie di Udin, sl, videmska pokrajina, Resian: , german: Provinz Weiden) was a province in the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia of Italy, bordering Austria and Slovenia. Its capita ...
in
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, and in northeastern
Upper Carniola
Upper Carniola ( sl, Gorenjska; it, Alta Carniola; german: Oberkrain) is a traditional region of Slovenia, the northern mountainous part of the larger Carniola region. The centre of the region is Kranj, while other urban centers include Jeseni ...
in
Slovenia
Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...
.
Geographic extension
It is spoken in Austrian
Carinthia
Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Bavarian group. Carin ...
in the
Gail Valley east of
Hermagor and west of
Faak am See ( sl, Bače), in the upper
Canale Valley Canale may refer to:
Places
;Italy
* Canale, Piedmont, a ''comune'' in the Province of Cuneo
* Canale, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, a ''frazione'' in the Province of Trento
* Canale d'Agordo, a ''comune'' in the Province of Belluno, Veneto
* C ...
( it, Val Canale, sl, Kanalska dolina) along the
Fella River ( sl, Bela) to east of
Pontebba
Pontebba ( fur, Ponteibe, german: Pontafel, sl, Tablja) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Udine in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
Geography
Pontebba, named after it, ponte meaning "bridge", is situated at the confluenc ...
and, together with the
Kranjska Gora
Kranjska Gora (; german: Kronau) is a town in northwestern Slovenia, on the Sava Dolinka River in the Upper Carniola region, close to the Austrian and Italian borders. It is the seat of the Municipality of Kranjska Gora.
Name
Kranjska Gora wa ...
subdialect, along the upper course of the
Sava Dolinka River to east of
Gozd Martuljek. Settlements in the dialect area include
Malborghetto,
Ugovizza,
Valbruna,
Camporosso
Camporosso ( lij, Campurussu) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Imperia in the Italian region Liguria, located about southwest of Genoa and about west of Imperia.
Camporosso borders the following municipalities: Dolceacqua, ...
,
Cave del Predil, and
Tarvisio
Tarvisio (German and fur, Tarvis, sl, Trbiž) is a comune in the northeastern part of the autonomous Friuli Venezia Giulia region in Italy.
Geography
The town is in the Canal Valley (''Val Canale'') between the Carnic Alps and Karawanks rang ...
(in Italy),
Förolach, Faak am See,
Feistritz an der Gail,
Arnoldstein,
Fürnitz, and
Mallestig (in Austria), and
Rateče, Kranjska Gora, and Gozd Martuljek (in Slovenia).
[Toporišič, Jože. 1992. ''Enciklopedija slovenskega jezika''. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, p. 376.] Viktor Paulsen divided the Gail Valley dialect into six subdialects: the Egg-Görtschach subdialect (comprising the Egg and Görtschach groups), the Potschach subdialect, the Saak subdialect, the Vorderberg subdialect, the Feistritz subdialect, and the Radendorf subdialect.
[Pronk, Tijmen. ''The Slovene Dialect of Egg and Potschach in the Gailtal, Austria''. Amsterdam: Rodopi, p. 5.]
Phonological and morphological characteristics
The Gail Valley dialect has
pitch accent
A pitch-accent language, when spoken, has word accents in which one syllable in a word or morpheme is more prominent than the others, but the accentuated syllable is indicated by a contrasting pitch ( linguistic tone) rather than by loudness ...
, reduction of vowels to ''ə'' in preaccentual position, development of open ''e'' and ''o'' > ''a'' in postaccentual position, shortening of long vowels in closed syllables, frequent
epenthetic
In phonology, epenthesis (; Greek ) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the beginning syllable ('' prothesis'') or in the ending syllable (''paragoge'') or in-between two syllabic sounds in a word. The word ''epent ...
''n'', ''v'' > ''b'' before ''e i r l'', hiatus as a result of elision of intervocalic
(e.g., ''krava'' > ''kraa'' 'cow'), voiced obstruents in word-final position, and an inflected conditional auxiliary (''besem, besi, be'').
The Gail Valley dialect has palatalization of ''k, g, h'' > ''č, ž, š'' before front vowels and lacks the standard Slovene
morphophonemic
Morphophonology (also morphophonemics or morphonology) is the branch of linguistics that studies the interaction between morphological and phonological or phonetic processes. Its chief focus is the sound changes that take place in morphemes ...
alternation between
and
for example, , instead of , 'drank' (masc., fem.), a phenomenon known as ''švapanje'' in Slovene.
References
Slovene dialects
{{Slavic-lang-stub