The Rižana subdialect (''rižanski govor'', ''rižansko podnarečje'') is a Slovene subdialect of the

Istrian dialect This article uses Logar transcription. The Istrian dialect ( , ) is a Slovene dialect spoken in Slovene Istria, as well as some settlements in Italy and Croatia. The dialect borders the Inner Carniolan dialect to the north and northeast, the So ...

in the

Littoral dialect group 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 (except for the mountainous areas around Tolmin and Cerkno, wher ...

. It is spoken in Italy in most of the municipalities of

San Dorligo della Valle San Dorligo della Valle ( sl, Dolina; Triestine: or ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about southeast of Trieste, on the border with Slovenia. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 6,01 ...

and

Muggia Muggia ( vec, label=Venetian, Triestine dialect, Muja; german: Mulgs; fur, Mugle; sl, Milje) is an Italian town and ''comune'' in the south-west of the Province of Trieste, in the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia on the border with Slovenia. Ly ...

() south 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 ...

, as well as in some southern suburbs of Trieste (especially Servola); in Slovenia, it is spoken in the northern part of

Slovene 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 lar ...

, in the Rižana Valley east and north of

Koper Koper (; it, Capodistria, hr, Kopar) is the fifth largest city in Slovenia. Located in the Istrian region in the southwestern part of the country, approximately five kilometres () south of the border with Italy and 20 kilometres () from Triest ...

, including the settlements of

Bertoki Bertoki (; it, Bertocchi ) is a settlement in the City Municipality of Koper in the Littoral region of Slovenia. The parish church in the settlement is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin The Assumption of Mary is one of the f ...

Dekani Dekani (; it, Villa Decani) is a settlement in the City Municipality of Koper in the Littoral region of Slovenia. Name ''Dekani'' was first attested in written sources in 1328 as ''Decani'' (and in 1423 as ''Villae Canis''). The name is derived ...

Osp Osp (; it, Ospo) is a village in the City Municipality of Koper in the Littoral region of Slovenia. Overview The Osp Valley is a passage through the karst and coastal region of Istria. It extends from below the village of Črni Kal to the sea. ...

Črni Kal Črni Kal (; it, San Sergio) is a village in southwestern Slovenia in the City Municipality of Koper. It is best known today for the Črni Kal Viaduct, the longest and the highest viaduct in Slovenia. Name The name ''Črni Kal'' literally mean ...

, Presnica, Podgorje, and Zazid.

Phonological and morphological characteristics

Like the

Šavrin Hills subdialect The Šavrin Hills subdialect (''šavrinski govor'', ''šavrinščina'', ''šavrinsko podnarečje'') is a Slovene subdialect of the Istrian dialect in the Littoral dialect group. It is spoken in the Šavrin Hills ( sl, Šavrinsko gričevje) south o ...

, the Rižana subdialect is based on characteristics of the Lower Carniolan and

Littoral The littoral zone or nearshore is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal areas ...

dialect groups. Accented vowels do not have length contrast. Secondary palatalization of the velars ''k g h'' has arisen before front vowels.Logar, Tine. 1996. ''Dialektološke in jezikovnozgodovinske razprave''. Ljubljana: SAZU, p. 8. Verbal

conjugation Conjugation or conjugate may refer to: Linguistics *Grammatical conjugation, the modification of a verb from its basic form * Emotive conjugation or Russell's conjugation, the use of loaded language Mathematics *Complex conjugation, the change ...

lacks the dual. The two subdialects share many lexical features, with many

loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because t ...

s from

Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language f ...

References

Slovene dialects {{Slavic-lang-stub