User:Garygo golob/North White Carniolan dialect/sandbox

The North White Carniolan dialect (severnobelokranjsko narečje, sjevernobelokrajinsko narječje) is a Slovene dialect spoken in White Carniola north of Dobliče and Griblje. Dialect was partially influenced by the immigrants of Serbo-Croatian origin that moved to this area in the 15th and 16th century. Dialect borders Lower Carniolan dialect to the north, Mixed Kočevje subdialects to the west and South White Carniolan dialect to the south, as well as Prigorje and Goran Kajkavian to the east and Eastern Herzegovinian Shtokavian to the northeast. The dialect belongs to the Lower Carniolan dialect group, and evolved from Lower Carniolan dialect plane.

Geographical distribution
The border between South and North White Carniolan dialect is pretty clear; it was already set by Tine Logar. It follows the line Jelševnik–Krasinec, but goes a bit southern of Črnomelj. Borders whith other Slovene dialects are also geographical borders; Gorjanci represent the border with Lower Carniolan dialect and Kočevski Rog with Mixed Kočevje subdialects. Border between Slovene and Serbo–Croatian is thought to follow national borders. Notable settlements include Stražnji Vrh, Črnomelj, Ručetna Vas, Semič, Gradac, Metlika, and Radovica.

History
White Carniola was inhabited by Slovenes after the 13th century, and even then it was pretty remote from other Slovenes by Kočevski Rog in the west and by Gorjanci in the north, and immigration of Gottscheers left Slovenes even more closely connected to Croatia. They, however, still kept in touch with other Slovenes that lived on the other side of Gorjanci in the north. Difference between North and South White Carniolan happened in the 15th and 16th century, when Turks started attacking Bosnia and Dalmatia. Because of that, White Carniolans started moving north of Gorjanci, while the mostly cleared region of southern White Carniola, especially along Kupa river, was newly inhabited by immigrants from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia. White Carniolan dialect then formed from mix of old White Carniolan dialect, Serbo-Croatian dialects, and dialects from newly settled Slovenes after the Turkic invasions. Serbo-Croatian influence was the most prominent in the south, while in the north, it had negligible influence. Therefore, White Carniolan dialect is today 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: *ženȁ → *žèna, *məglȁ → *mə̀gla, *sěnȏ / *prosȏ → *sě̀no / *pròso, *visȍk → vìsok, and *kováč → *kòvač.

Phonology
Serbo-Croatian immigrants altered the dialect to a much lesser extent than in 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. Slovenian linguist Jože Toporišič even states that there was no early mixing with Croatian in this dialect.

Alpine Slavic *ě̄ and non-final *ě̀ evolved into ḙː around Semič and into ẹː elsewhere. Vowel *ō evolved into uː. Non-final *è and *ę̀, as well as *ē and *ę̄ evolved into iːe in the west and into ẹː in the east. Similarly, *ǭ and non-final *ò and *ǫ̀ evolved into uːo in the west and into ọː in the east. Syllabic *ł̥̄ and non-final *ł̥̀ evolved into oːu̯ or uː in the west, and, apart from Metlika and northern from that where oːu̯ is spoken, ọː in the east. Non-final *ù and *ū evolved into uː, in the past üː was also present in the west.

Newly accented e and o after *ženȁ → *žèna shift became diphthongs i̯eː/i̯e and u̯o/u̯a, respectively in the west, and eː and oː/ọː, respectively in the east. Newly stressed *a and *e in Črnomelj microdialect turned into ə and before i, j appeared.

Before the stress, vowels *i and *u evolved into e̥, and *a commonly turns into ə. Akanye is not common. After the stress, vowel *o evolved into ȯ and *i into e̥. In Črnomelj, unstressed *i turned into ė. Diphthongs *ej and *aj simplified into i.

Short vowels also simplified in closed syllables, i turned into e̥, *u into ȯ, o or e̥, and a into ḁ. In Črnomelj, short *i and *i followed by *r simplified into ə.

Velar *ł was retained in southeastern microdialects and palatal consonants stayed palatal in some microdialects, particularly those in the east.

Morphology
Dialect retained neuter gender, but lost dual forms. Adjectives are mainly compared periphrastically, but all suffixes are still occasionally in use. Long infinitive was replace by short, ending in -t (both instead of -ti or -i). Participles in -č, -e and -(v)ši are not in use anymore, gerund is also rarely used. Pluperfect is not in use anymore, preterite and future tense are formed as biti + l-participle.

Instrumental plural was replaced by locative plural forms in eastern microdialects.

Vocabulary
Vocabulary of Črnomelj microdialect was collected by Janez Kramarič and published in Slovar črnomaljskega narečnega govora.