The Tolmin dialect (, ''tolminščina'') is a
Slovene dialect in the
Rovte dialect group
The Rovte dialect group (''rovtarska narečna skupina'', ''rovtarščina'') is a group of closely related dialects of Slovene. The Rovte dialects are spoken in the mountainous areas of west-central Slovenia, on the border between the Slovenian Li ...
. It is spoken in the watersheds of the
Bača and lower
Idrijca
The Idrijca is a river flowing through the Idrija Hills and Cerkno Hills in Slovenia. It is long. It rises near Vojsko, Idrija, Vojsko, flows towards northeast and after passing through Idrija turns to the northwest. After passing through Spodn ...
rivers, as well as the reaches of the
Soča
Soča (, in Slovene) or Isonzo (, in Italian; other names: ; ; or ') is a long river that flows through western Slovenia () and northeastern Italy ().
An Alpine river in character, its source lies in the Trenta Valley in the Julian Alps ...
River in that area, bounded on the west by a line west of
Tolmin
Tolmin (; ,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. Statistische ...
and
Most na Soči
Most na Soči (; formerly ''Sveta Lucija'' or ''Sveta Lucija na Mostu'', ) is a town in the Municipality of Tolmin in the Littoral region of Slovenia. It is located on a rocky crest above the confluence of Soča and Idrijca rivers. In the past th ...
. Other settlements in the dialect area include
Grahovo ob Bači
Grahovo ob Bači (; ) is a village on the Bača River in the Municipality of Tolmin in the Littoral region of Slovenia.
Name
The name of the settlement was changed from ''Grahovo'' to ''Grahovo ob Bači'' (literally, 'Grahovo on the Bača River' ...
.
[Toporišič, Jože. 1992. ''Enciklopedija slovenskega jezika''. Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, p. 329.]
Phonological and morphological characteristics
The Tolmin dialect lacks
pitch accent
A pitch-accent language is a type of language that, when spoken, has certain syllables in words or morphemes that are prominent, as indicated by a distinct contrasting pitch (music), pitch (tone (linguistics), linguistic tone) rather than by vol ...
, except in
Čiginj
Čiginj () is a settlement south of Volče in the Municipality of Tolmin in the Littoral region of Slovenia.
Name
The etymology of the name ''Čiginj'' is unclear. It is believed to be of Romance origin, and it may show a Romance reflex of Latin ...
, where this is partially retained. It has short vowels resulting from accentual retraction of the type ''nàga'' < ''nogà'' 'foot', vowel reduction as in the central Slovene dialects, ''b'' < ''v'' (known as ''betacizem'' in Slovene), and innovative Slovenian palatalization (e.g., ''ščìra'' < ''sekira'' 'axe'). Long ''i'' and ''u'' have shortened, restricting the long vowel inventory to ''ie'', ''uo'', and ''a''. The dialect has undergone complete
akanye
Akanye or akanje (, , ), literally "''a''-ing", is a sound change in Slavic languages in which the phonemes or are realized as more or less close to . It is a case of vowel reduction.
The most familiar example is probably Russian akanye (pron ...
and the lenition of ''g'' >
References
Slovene dialects
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