The Gostivar dialect (

Macedonian Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North M ...

: гостиварски дијалект, ''gostivarski dijalekt'' ) is a member of the western and north western subgroup of the western group of

dialects of Macedonian The dialects of Macedonian comprise the Slavic dialects spoken in the Republic of North Macedonia as well as some varieties spoken in the wider geographic region of Macedonia. They are part of the dialect continuum of South Slavic languages that ...

. The dialect is mainly spoken in the area around the city of

Gostivar Gostivar ( mk, Гостивар , Albanian and Turkish: ''Gostivar''), is a city in North Macedonia, located in the upper Polog valley region. It is one of the largest municipalities in the country with a population of 81,042, and the town also ...

to the villages Brvenica and

Bogovinje Bogovinje ( mk, ; sq, Bogovinë /bɒgɒviːnə/) is a village in the municipality of Bogovinje, North Macedonia. It is a seat of the Bogovinje municipality. Sports The village also has a stadium home to FK Drita called Stadion Bogovinje. Demogr ...

on north,

Reka Reka may refer to: Places * Řeka, a village in the Czech Republic * Reka, Cerkno, a village near Cerkno, Slovenia * Reka, Laško, a village near Laško, Slovenia * Reka (Kladovo), a village near Kladovo, Serbia * Reka, Koprivnica, a village ne ...

region on west,

Poreče Poreče, Porečie or Porečje or Poreč ( mk, Порече, Поречие, Поречје or Poreč), is a region in North Macedonia which includes the Makedonski Brod Municipality, and the western part of the Prilep Municipality Prilep ( mk ...

on east and Galičnik on south. The dialect is closely related with the neighbouring dialects, particularly with the

Kičevo-Poreče dialect The Kičevo-Poreče dialect ( mk, Кичевско-поречки дијалект, ''Kičevsko-porečki dijalekt'') is a member of the central subgroup of the western group of dialects of Macedonian. The dialect is spoken in a vast area in Nort ...

Reka dialect The Reka dialect ( mk, Рекански дијалект, ''Rekanski dijalekt'') is a member of the west and north-west subgroup of the western group of dialects of Macedonian. The dialect is mainly spoken on the territory of the region Reka i ...

and

Galičnik dialect The Galičnik dialect ( mk, Галички дијалект, ''Galički dijalekt'') or Mala Reka dialect ( mk, Малорекански дијалект, ''Malorekanski dijalekt'') is a member of the subgroup of western and north western dialects ...

. Also in some extent, the dialect shares some similarities with the

Tetovo dialect The Tetovo dialect ( mk, Тетовски дијалект, ''Tetovski dijalekt'') is a member of the western subgroup of the northern group of dialects of Macedonian. It is considered part of the transitional Torlakian dialects. It is spoken b ...

. The dialect is very well known for using masculine forms of direct and indirect objects, for male and female.

Phonological characteristics

* replacement of the letters ''ќ'' and ''ѓ'' in verbal use with ''ч'' and ''џ'', respectively: куќа (''kukja'') → куча (''kucha''); Ѓурѓа (''Gjurgja'') → Џурџа (''Djurdja'') * the

yat Yat or jat (Ѣ ѣ; italics: ) is the thirty-second letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet and the Rusyn alphabet. There is also another version of yat, the iotified yat (majuscule: , minuscule: ), which is a Cyrillic character combining a ...

has reflexed into � цена (''cena'', "price") * the Proto-Slavic ''*ǫ'' has denazalized to * the older has been replaced with in most words: прах (''prah'') → прав (''prav'', "dust") * the consonant group ''цв-'' is substituted with ''цу-'': цвет (''cvet'') → цут (''cut'', "flower") * absence of the intervocalic in the plural forms of monosyllabic nouns (e.g. лебо(в)и, дождо(в)и, etc.)

Morphological characteristics

* use of masculine direct and indirect object for males and females: Дај му ја топкава на Тони/ Дај му ја топкава на Ивона (Daj mu ja topkava na Toni/ Daj mu ja topkava na Ivona) - Give this ball to Toni/ Ivona; * three definite articles pertaining to the position of the object (see

Macedonian grammar The grammar of Macedonian is, in many respects, similar to that of some other Balkan languages (constituent languages of the '' Balkan sprachbund''), especially Bulgarian. Macedonian exhibits a number of grammatical features that distinguish it ...

) * use of suffix -t for third person singular: тој пишува- тој пишуват (''toj pišuva'') - he writes

Examples of the dialect

Traditional song on Upper Polog dialect: :Што ќе правиме, чиниме, :со кој мерак ш'о го имаме, :ниту јадиме, пиеме, :ниту слободно спиеме. :Сношти помина покрај нас, :тамо ја најдов мајка ти. :- Добро вечер, стара бабо. :- Дал ти Бог добро, јуначе. :А што ми рече два збора, :два збора, до два изгора. :- Да, море лудо и младо, :не си го губи времето. :Момето ми е свршено, :за друго лудо, порусо, :за друго лудо, порусо, :од тебе многу поарно.

References

Works cited

* {{Macedonian dialects Dialects of the Macedonian language Gostivar Municipality Brvenica Municipality Bogovinje Municipality