Prilep-Bitola dialect



The Prilep-Bitola dialect (Прилепско-битолски дијалект, Prilepsko-bitolski dijalekt) is a member of the central subgroup of the western group of dialects of Macedonian. This dialect is spoken in much of the Pelagonia region (more specifically, the Bitola, Prilep, Kruševo and Demir Hisar municipalities), as well as by the Slavic-speaking minority population in and around Florina (Lerin) in neighbouring Greek Macedonia. The Prilep-Bitola dialect, along with other peripheral west-central dialects, provides much of the basis for modern Standard Macedonian. Prestige dialects have developed in the cities of Bitola and Prilep.

Phonological characteristics
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 (strav; 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

 * tripartite definite article pertaining to the position of the object (see Macedonian grammar);
 * use of the preposition во (vo) or в (v);
 * use of the grammatical construction have + past participle: имам работено (imam raboteno; I have worked);
 * merger of thematic е-group verbs to и-group verbs; e.g. јаде → јади  (3P sg. Present tense of 'to eat');
 * the third-person personal pronouns: тој, та/таа/таја, то(а), тие/тија (he, she, it, they);
 * some of the outermost dialects of the Lerin subdialect have он, она, то, они;
 * imperfective verbs are typically derived from perfective verbs by means of the suffix –ва (e.g. зборва and боледва) in Bitola dialects, but standard -ува in Prilep dialects;
 * 'expansion' where other dialects have palatalization: падина ("to fall", sing. present third-person) versus the standard паѓа;
 * use of the oblique form for proper names;
 * no distinction between masculine and feminine short possessive pronouns, i.e. consistent use of му and го for both genders, in Bitola dialects, but they are used in the plural third person in Prilep;
 * use of -јќум and -јким instead of the standard -јќи for the gerund, in older speakers, e.g. одејќум (while walking).

Typical words

 * чупе 'girl'
 * преѓе, преѓеска 'recently, lately'
 * модистра 'seamstress'
 * бендиса 'to have a liking for something or someone', 'to fancy'
 * сурат 'face'
 * плусне 'to fire (a rifle)'
 * капнат 'exhausted'
 * греда 'plank', 'beam (of wood)'