North White Carniolan dialect

The border between the South and North White Carniolan dialects is rather clear; it was already defined by Tine Logar. It follows the line from Jelševnik to Krasinec, but runs a bit south of Črnomelj. == History ==

White Carniola was inhabited by Slovenes after the 13th century, and even then it was quite remote from other Slovenes on the Kočevje Rog Plateau to the west and in the Gorjanci Hills to the north. The immigration of the Gottschee Germans left the Slovenes even more closely connected to Croatia. However, they still maintained contact with other Slovenes that lived on the other side of the Gorjanci Hills to the north. Differentiation between the North and South White Carniolan dialects occurred in the 15th and 16th centuries, when the Ottomans started attacking Bosnia and Dalmatia. Because of this, White Carniolans started moving north of the Gorjanci Hills, and the mostly cleared region of southern White Carniola, especially along the Kolpa River, was newly inhabited by immigrants from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia. The White Carniolan dialect then formed from a mix of the old White Carniolan dialect, Serbo-Croatian dialects, and dialects from newly settled Slovenes after the Ottoman invasions. Serbo-Croatian influence was the most prominent in the south, whereas in the north it had negligible influence. Therefore, today the White Carniolan dialect is split based on how much influence it received from Serbo-Croatian. == Accentual changes ==

The dialect lost the difference between high- and low-pitched accent, both on long and short vowels, which are still differentiated. It also underwent six accentual changes, which are also present in South White Carniolan: → , → , / → / , → , and → . == Phonology ==

Serbo-Croatian immigrants altered the dialect to a much lesser extent than in the South White Carniolan dialect. There are some partially altered microdialects, but most of them are more or less unaltered. All vowel changes are expected for a Slovene dialect, and vowel reduction is present. The Slovenian linguist Jože Toporišič even states that there was no early mixing with Croatian in this dialect. Before the stress, the vowels and evolved into , and commonly turns into . Akanye is not common. After the stress, the vowel evolved into and into . In Črnomelj, unstressed turned into . Diphthongs and simplified into i. Short vowels also simplified in closed syllables, turned into , into , or , and into . In Črnomelj, short and followed by simplified into . Velar was retained in the southeastern microdialects, and palatal consonants remained palatal in some microdialects, particularly those in the east. == Morphology ==

The dialect retained neuter gender, but it lost dual forms. Adjectives are mainly compared periphrastically, but all suffixes are still occasionally in use. The long infinitive was replaced by the short infinitive ending in (both instead of or ). Participles in , , and are not in use anymore, and the gerund is also rarely used. The pluperfect is not in use anymore, and the preterite and future forms are expressed with + l-participle. == Vocabulary ==

The vocabulary of the Črnomelj microdialect was collected by Janez Kramarič and published in Slovar črnomaljskega narečnega govora. ==References==