The phonological characteristics of the Bitola-Prilep dialect which can also be found in the other peripheral dialects are: • mostly
antepenultimate word stress (see
Macedonian phonology); •
Proto-Slavic *ǫ has reflexed into : ::rǫka >
рака ('hand') • except for the Prilep sub-dialects, Bitola sub-dialects have two phonemic
lateral consonants ( and , continuants of Proto-Slavic *l and *ĺ): ::ex. Proto-Slavic *kĺučь > in Bitola sub-dialects, in Prilep sub-dialects • while most Macedonian dialects have a phonemic (in loanwords), many sub-dialects of the Prilep-Bitola dialect—with the exception of urban prestige dialects—instead have : ::
Megleno-Romanian fustan >
вустан ('ladies' dress') ::
Ottoman Turkish فوطة >
вута ('apron') ::Ottoman Turkish فرنا >
вурна ('
bakehouse,
masonry oven') • the palatal affricates are typically prepalatalized:
свеќа ('candle') is realized as ,
меѓа ('border, frontier') is realized as and in Prilep, especially in younger speakers as and ; • a similar features occurs with the palatal nasal:
јадење ('food') is realized as ; • the etymological in initial position has been lost in a number of instances: • in the sequences
*vs- and
*vz-, as is the case in the standard; e.g.
сè ('all') from the earlier *
все,
зема ('to take') from the earlier *
взема; • in a handful of words where the pronunciation was "evened up" with that of their antonyms:
натре from the earlier
внатре ('inside') as per
надвор ('outside'),
ногу from the earlier
многу ('much, a lot') as per
малку ('a little'); • intervocalic consonant
elision is typical of this dialect, and elided forms are in
free variation with non-elided forms: • elision of the intervocalic : • in the plural forms of monosyllabic nouns, e.g.
лебо(в)и: :::: → (realized as ~ ) ::* and in most other positions, e.g.
то(в)ар: :::: → (realized as ) :* certain short words (conjunctions, pronouns, determiners, etc.) have undergone further elision, ex.: ::: (→ ) → ('now') ::: * (→ ) → (
indic. pron. 'that') ::: (→ ) → (
interr. pron. 'when') • insertion of and into consonant clusters -- and --, respectively; for example, from the earlier (
срам, 'shame') and from the earlier (
зрел, 'ripe'). • use of /v/ instead of the archaic /x/: страх (strah) > страв (; fear); • In the sub-dialect of
Bukovo-
Orehovo, especially among the oldest generations: • while is an allophone of in most dialects (occurring in all positions except before front vowels and ), in this dialect is used instead; ex.: ::: for (
глава, 'head') and for (
слама, 'straw') • the phoneme mutates (is raised) to ( ~ ) when preceding an
affricate or
iotated consonant with the exception of suffixes; ex.: :::
чаша ('cup') is realized as :::
жаба ('frog') is realized as • the
Proto-Slavic syllabic *l̥ has reflexed into , e.g. *sъlnьce > ('sun'), *vьlkъ > ('wolf'). ==Morphological characteristics==