The Littoral dialect group (''primorska narečna skupina'') is a group of very heterogeneous dialects of Slovene. The Littoral dialects are spoken in most of the

Slovenian Littoral The Slovene Littoral ( sl, Primorska, ; it, Litorale; german: Küstenland) is one of the five traditional regions of Slovenia. Its name recalls the former Austrian Littoral (''Avstrijsko Primorje''), the Habsburg possessions on the upper Ad ...

(except for the mountainous areas around

Tolmin Tolmin (; it, Tolmino,trilingual name ''Tolmein, Tolmino, Tolmin'' inGemeindelexikon, der im Reichsrate Vertretenen Königreiche und Länder. Bearbeit auf Grund der Ergebnisse der Volkszählung vom 31. Dezember 1900. Herausgegeben von der K.K. ...

and

Cerkno Cerkno (; it, Circhina; ger, Kirchheim) is a small town in the Littoral region of Slovenia. It has around 2,000 inhabitants and is the administrative centre of the Cerkno Hills. It is the seat of the Municipality of Cerkno. Cerkno is a small b ...

, where Rovte dialects are spoken) and in the western part of

Inner Carniola Inner Carniola ( sl, Notranjska; german: Innerkrain) is a traditional region of Slovenia, the southwestern part of the larger Carniola region. It comprises the Hrušica karst plateau up to Postojna Gate, bordering the Slovenian Littoral (th ...

. They are also spoken by

Slovenes The Slovenes, also known as Slovenians ( sl, Slovenci ), are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Slovenia, and adjacent regions in Italy, Austria and Hungary. Slovenes share a common ancestry, Slovenian culture, culture, History ...

in the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

provinces of

Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into pr ...

and

Gorizia Gorizia (; sl, Gorica , colloquially 'old Gorizia' to distinguish it from Nova Gorica; fur, label=Standard Friulian, Gurize, fur, label= Southeastern Friulian, Guriza; vec, label= Bisiacco, Gorisia; german: Görz ; obsolete English ''Goritz ...

, and in the mountainous areas of eastern

Friuli Friuli ( fur, Friûl, sl, Furlanija, german: Friaul) is an area of Northeast Italy with its own particular cultural and historical identity containing 1,000,000 Friulians. It comprises the major part of the autonomous region Friuli Venezia Giul ...

(

Venetian Slovenia Slavia Friulana, which means Friulian Slavia ( sl, Beneška Slovenija), is a small mountainous region in northeastern Italy and it is so called because of its Slavic population which settled here in the 8th century AD. The territory is located in ...

and Resia).

Phonological and morphological characteristics

Among other features, this group is characterized by diphthongization of yat > ''ie'' and ''o'' > ''uo'', and late denasalization of *''ę'' and *''ǫ''. The western dialects in this group have preserved

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 ...

whereas the others have a non-tonal stress accent.

Individual dialects and subdialects

* Resia(n) dialect (''rezijansko narečje'', ''rezijanščina''); spoken in the Resia Valley (

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 ...

) *

Soča dialect This article uses Logar transcription. The Soča dialect ( ) is a Slovene dialect spoken in upper Soča Valley. It is one of the most archaic Slovene dialects, together with the Natisone Valley, Torre Valley, and Rosen Valley dialects. It ...

(''obsoško narečje''); spoken in the Upper Soča Valley * Torre Valley dialect (''tersko narečje'', ''terščina''); spoken in the upper Torre Valley (Italy) and in the Breginj area (Slovenia) * Natisone Valley dialect (''nadiško narečje'', ''nadiščina''); spoken in the Natisone Valley in

(Italy) and in western parts of the Gorizia region (Slovenia) *

Brda dialect This article uses Logar transcription. The Brda dialect ( , ), or Gorizia Hills dialect, is a Slovene dialect spoken in the Gorizia Hills in Slovenia and Italy. It is known for extreme vowel reduction in final position. It borders the Natis ...

(''briško narečje'', ''briščina''); spoken in the Brda ( it, Collio Goriziano) area in Slovenia and in Italy, as well as in some suburbs of

(Italy) * Karst dialect (''kraško narečje'', ''kraščina''); spoken in the north-western parts of the

Karst Plateau The Karst Plateau or the Karst region ( sl, Kras, it, Carso), also locally called Karst, is a karst plateau region extending across the border of southwestern Slovenia and northeastern Italy. It lies between the Vipava Valley, the low hills su ...

, in the lower

Vipava Valley The Vipava Valley (; sl, Vipavska dolina, german: Wippachtal, it, Valle del Vipacco) is a valley in the Slovenian Littoral, roughly between the village of Podnanos to the east and the border with Italy to the west. The main towns are Ajdovš ...

and in the lower

Soča The Soča ( in Slovene) or Isonzo ( in Italian; other names fur, Lusinç, german: Sontig, la, Aesontius or ') is a long river that flows through western Slovenia () and northeastern Italy (). An Alpine river in character, its source lies ...

Valley, as well as in some suburbs of

and

(Italy) ** Banjšice subdialect (''banjški govor'', ''banjiški govor''); spoken on the

Banjšice Plateau The Banjšice Plateau ( sl, Banjška planota, also or , it, Altopiano della Bainsizza) is a karst plateau in western Slovenia, in the traditional region of Goriška. It is a widely settled area, distinguished by its history and biodiversity. Geo ...

* Istrian dialect (''istrsko narečje'', ''istrščina''); spoken in

Slovenian Istria Slovene Istria ( sl, slovenska Istra, it, Istria slovena) is a region in southwest Slovenia. It comprises the northern part of the Istrian peninsula, and it is part of the wider geographical-historical region known as the Slovene Littoral. Its l ...

and parts of the Italian

Province of Trieste The Province of Trieste ( it, Provincia di Trieste, sl, Tržaška pokrajina; fur, provinzia di Triest) was a province in the autonomous Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy. Its capital was the city of Trieste. It had an area of and it had a t ...

** Rižana subdialect (''rižanski govor''); spoken in northern Slovenian Istria and parts of the Province of Trieste (Italy) ** Šavrin Hills subdialect (''šavrinski govor'', ''šavrinščina''); spoken in southern Slovenian Istria *

Inner Carniolan dialect This article uses Logar transcription. The Inner Carniolan dialect ( , ) is a Slovene dialect very close to the Lower Carniolan dialect, but with more recent accent shifts. It is spoken in a relatively large area, extending from western Inner ...

(''notranjsko narečje'', ''notranjščina''Logar, Tine. 1996. ''Dialektološke in jezikovnozgodovinske razprave''. Ljubljana: SAZU, p. 65.); spoken in western

, the upper

, and southern

, as well as in most of the Slovenian-inhabited suburbs of

(Italy) * Čičarija dialect (''čiško narečje'', ''čički dialekt''Rigler, Jakob. 1963. ''Južnonotranjski govori''. Ljubljana: SAZU, pp. 11–12.); spoken in a few villages in

on the border with

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Littoral dialect group Slovene dialects