Old-Shtokavian dialects Prizren–Timok (Torlakian) The transitional dialects stretch southwest from the
Timok Valley near the
Bulgarian border to
Prizren. There is disagreement among linguists whether these dialects belong to the Shtokavian area, because there are many other morphological characteristics apart from rendering of
što (also, some dialects use
kakvo or
kvo, typical for Bulgarian), which would place them into a "transitional" group between Shtokavian and Eastern South Slavic languages (
Bulgarian and
Macedonian). The Timok–Prizren group falls to the
Balkan sprachbund: declension has all but disappeared, the
infinitive has yielded to
subjunctives da-constructions, and adjectives are compared exclusively with prefixes. The accent in the dialect group is a stress accent, and it falls on any syllable in the word. The old semi-vowel has been retained throughout. The vocalic
l has been retained (
vlk =
vuk), and some dialects don't distinguish
ć/č and
đ/dž by preferring the latter, postalveolar variants. Some subdialects preserve
l at the end of words (where otherwise it has developed into a short o) –
došl,
znal, etc. (cf.
Kajkavian and
Bulgarian); in others, this
l has become the syllable
ja. Torlakian is spoken in
Kosovo, around
Prizren,
Gnjilane, and
Štrpce, in
Southern Serbia, in the part of
Toplica Valley around
Prokuplje, in
Nišava Valley around
Pirot, and
Timok Valley ending up with the area around
Zaječar, where the Kosovo–Resava dialect becomes more dominant. Few centuries ago, before settlers from Kosovo brought Kosovo–Resava dialect to Eastern Serbia (to
Bor and
Negotin area), Torlakian dialects had been overwhelmingly represented in this region.
Slavonian Also called the
Archaic Šćakavian, it is spoken by
Croats who live in some parts of
Slavonia,
Bačka,
Baranja,
Syrmia, in Croatia and Serbia, as well as in northern Bosnia. It is divided into two
subdialects: southern (Posavian /
posavski) and northern (Podravian /
podravski). The Slavonian dialect has mixed Ikavian and Ekavian pronunciations. Ikavian accent is predominant in the Posavina, Baranja, Bačka, and in the Slavonian subdialect enclave of
Derventa, whereas Ekavian accent is predominant in
Podravina. There are enclaves of one accent in the territory of the other, as well as mixed Ekavian–Ikavian and Jekavian–Ikavian areas. In some villages in Hungary, the original
yat is preserved. Local variants can widely differ in the degree of Neo-Shtokavian influences. In two villages in
Posavina, Siče and Magića Male, the
l, as in the verb
nosil, has been retained in place of the modern
nosio. In some villages in the Podravina,
čr is preserved instead of the usual
cr, for example in
črn instead of
crn. Both forms are usual in Kajkavian but very rare in Shtokavian.
Eastern Bosnian Also called
Jekavian-Šćakavian, Eastern Bosnian dialect has Jekavian pronunciations in the vast majority of local forms and it is spoken by the majority of Bosniaks living in that area, which includes the bigger Bosnian cities
Sarajevo,
Tuzla, and
Zenica, and by most of Croats that live in that area (
Vareš,
Usora, etc.). Together with basic Jekavian pronunciation, mixed pronunciations exist in
Tešanj and
Maglaj dete–djeteta (Ekavian–Jekavian) and around
Žepče and
Jablanica djete–diteta (Jekavian–ikavian). In the central area of the subdialect, the
diphthong uo exists in some words instead of the archaic
l and more common
u like
vuok or , instead of the standard modern
vuk and
stup.
Zeta–Raška Also known as
Đekavian-Ijekavian, it is spoken in eastern half of Montenegro and in eastern
Raška in Serbia. Its speakers are Serbs, Montenegrins, Bosniaks, and
ethnic Muslims. Together with the dominant Ijekavian pronunciation, mixed pronunciations like
djete–deteta (Jekavian–Ekavian) around Novi Pazar and
Bijelo Polje,
dijete–đeteta (Ijekavian–Jekavian) around Podgorica and
dete–đeteta (Ekavian–Jekavian) in the village of
Mrkojevići in southern Montenegro. Mrkojevići are also characterised by retention of
čr instead of
cr as in the previously mentioned villages in Podravina. Some vernaculars have a very open /ɛ/ or /æ/ as their reflex of ь/ъ, very rare in other Shtokavian vernaculars (
sæn and
dæn instead of
san and
dan). Other phonetic features include sounds like in
iʑesti instead of
izjesti, as in
ɕekira instead of
sjekira. However these sounds are known also to many in East Herzegovina like those in
Konavle, and are not Zeta–Raška specific . There is a loss of the /v/ sound apparent, seen in ''čo'ek
or đa'ola''. The loss of distinction between /ʎ/ and /l/ in some vernaculars is based on a
substratum. The word is a hypercorrection (instead of ) because many vernaculars have changed lj to j. All verbs in infinitive finish with "t" (example: 'sing'). This feature is also present in most vernaculars of East Herzegovinian, and actually almost all Serbian and Croatian vernaculars. The group
a + o gave
ā /aː/ (
kā instead of
kao,
rekā for
rekao), like in other seaside vernaculars. Elsewhere, more common is
ao >
ō.
Kosovo–Resava Also called
Older Ekavian, is spoken by Serbs, mostly in western and northeastern Kosovo (around
Mitrovica and in Serb ethnic enclaves of
Goraždevac and
Osojane near
Peja), in
Ibar Valley up to
Kraljevo, around
Kruševac,
Trstenik, and in Župa, in the part of
Toplica Valley around (
Kuršumlija), in the
Morava Valley (
Jagodina,
Ćuprija,
Paraćin,
Lapovo), in
Resava Valley (
Svilajnac,
Despotovac) and eastern Serbia (
Požarevac,
Bor,
Majdanpek,
Negotin). This dialect can be also found in parts of
Banatska Klisura (Clisura Dunării) in Romania, in places where
Romanian Serbs live (left bank of the Danube). Substitution of
jat is predominantly Ekavian accent even on the end of datives (
žene instead of
ženi), in pronouns (
teh instead of
tih), in comparatives (
dobrej instead of ) in the negative of biti (
nesam instead of
nisam); in
Smederevo–
Vršac dialects, Ikavian forms can be found (
di si instead of
gde si?).
Smederevo–Vršac dialect (spoken in northeastern Šumadija, Lower Great Morava Valley and Banat) is sometimes classified as a subdialect of the Kosovo–Resava dialect but is also considered to be a separate dialect as it the represents mixed speech of Šumadija–Vojvodina and Kosovo–Resava dialects.
Neo-Shtokavian dialects Younger Ikavian Also called
Western Ikavian. The majority of its speakers are
Croats who live in
Lika,
Kvarner,
Dalmatia,
Herzegovina, and in north
Bačka around Subotica in Serbia and south
Bács-Kiskun of Hungary, and in
Molise in Italy. The minority speakers of it include
Bosniaks in western Bosnia, mostly around the city of
Bihać, and also in central Bosnia where Croats and Bosniaks (e.g.
Travnik,
Jajce,
Bugojno,
Vitez) used to speak this dialect. Exclusively Ikavian accent, Bosnian and Herzegovinian forms use
o in verb participle, whereas those in Dalmatia and Lika use
-ija or
ia like in
vidija/vidia. Local form of
Bačka was proposed as the base for the Danubian branch of the
Bunjevac dialect of Bunjevac Croats (
Bunjevci) in
Vojvodina, Serbia.
Šumadija–Vojvodina Also known as
Younger Ekavian, is one of the bases for the standard
Serbian language. It is spoken by Serbs across most of Vojvodina (excluding easternmost parts around Vršac), wider
Belgrade region, western half of
Šumadija,
Kolubara,
Mačva, and in majority ethnic Serb areas in eastern Croatia around the town of
Vukovar. It is predominately Ekavian (Ikavian forms are of morphophonological origin). Most Vojvodina dialects and some dialects in Šumadija have an open
e and
o. However the vernaculars of western Serbia, and in past to them connected vernaculars of (old) Belgrade and southwestern Banat (Borča,
Pančevo, Bavanište) are as close to the standard as a vernacular can be. The dialect presents a base for the Ekavian variant of the Serbian standard language.
Eastern Herzegovinian Also called
Eastern Herzegovinian or
Neo-Ijekavian. It encompasses by far the largest area and the number of speakers of all Shtokavian dialects. It is the dialectal basis of the standard literary
Croatian,
Bosnian,
Serbian, and
Montenegrin languages. A specific idiom which is often grouped with Eastern Herzegovinian is
Dubrovnik subdialect. Also known as
Western Ijekavian, in earlier centuries, this subdialect was an independent subdialect of Western Shtokavian dialect. After migrations and Neo-Shtokavisation, it preserved features (like accent, vowels, morphology etc.) which are different to Eastern Herzegovinian. It has a mixed Shtokavian and Chakavian vocabulary, with some words from
Dalmatian, older
Venetian and modern
Italian. Micro groups: • western
Montenegro – spoken south Ijekavian variant. •
Croats western Ijekavian variant micro groups in region
Slavonia,
Banovina,
Kordun,
Žumberak,
Neretva,
East Herzegovina (
Ravno,
Stolac,
Buna,
Neum), wider
Dubrovnik region, and is the basis of the Croatian standard. Cities and towns: (
Osijek,
Bjelovar,
Daruvar,
Sisak,
Pakrac,
Petrinja,
Dubrovnik,
Metković). •
Serbs east Ijekavian variant groups; East Bosnia, East Herzegovina (
Trebinje,
Nevesinje,
Bileća),
Bosanska Krajina, southwestern Serbia and Podrinje (
Užice,
Čačak,
Ivanjica,
Loznica,
Priboj,
Prijepolje). Cities and towns:
Trebinje,
Bijeljina,
Banja Luka,
Prijedor,
Istočno Sarajevo. • Its south-eastern form is characterised by the total lack of sound that is sometimes not only left out or replaced by more common or but is replaced as well by less common and (, imperfect of verb
biti). Local forms in the
Žumberak enclave and around
Dubrovnik or
Slunj have some special Croatian features, influenced from
Chakavian and the
western subdialect, whereas forms in
Bjelovar or
Pakrac are influenced from
Kajkavian. ==Yat reflexes==