Carnian dialects

Carnian is traditionally divided into five dialect groups: Carinthian (corinsc), Upper (gorn), Lower (doln), Central (centraln), and Kvarner (cuarn) as well as one sociolect Fyn. The dialects can also have several subdialects, which are further divided into microdialects.

Background

The rise of the March of Carinthia allowed Northwestern Alpine Slavic to become a prestigious vernacular and spread beyond the territory of Carinthia proper. Initially a unified language, NWAS, and later Old Carnian, divided into two main branches: western, covering much of the Littoral and Inner Carniola, and northern, spoken in Carinthia and Upper Carniola. Apart from this division arose the transitional Lower dialect in the northwestern parts of Lower Carniola, which was predominantly Slovene-speaking. Early Modern times and the territorial expansion of Carnia saw further division of those dialects and the rise of new ones.

Dialect overview

Map of Carnian dialect groups

Carinthian

The Carinthian dialect is spoken in Carnian Carinthia and a few places in Upper Carniola, as well as by Austrian Carnians. During the Middle Ages it was the most prestigious dialect and the vernacular of the nobility and clergy, and therefore strongly influenced the other regions. At the same time, Carinthian is the most Germanized of all Carnian dialects due to Carnian-German bilingualism existing there since the very beginning of Carnian statehood. These factors account for the presence of German-influenced features across Carnian speech territory, such as four-case system, uninflected predicative adjectives, stem-initial accent, vowel reduction, and syncope. Traces of German influence can be seen in spelling, although nowadays to a much smaller extent, and visible in the use of ⟨œ⟩ for /ɜ/ (realized as [œ] in Carinthian), ⟨ch⟩ for /x/, or ⟨tz⟩ for /t͡s/, and ⟨ck⟩ for /k/ before front vowels. Other features like open-syllable lengthening and the use of articles are attributed to both German and Romance/Italian influence.

Carinthian maintains several conservative features not present anymore in modern Carnian, yet does not lack its own innovations. Its main features are:

The preservation of stem-initial stress and pitch accent. Stressed open syllables are long in the majority of Carinthia, although some more conservative valleys maintain the original length distinctions
Lenition of voiced stops /b, d, g/ > /β, ð, ɣ/. The degree of lenition ranges from full lenition in all positions to medial positions only
Realization of ea in its traditional form [æ], with the diphthongal pronunciation becoming more popular only recently
ą raised to ỹ in unstressed syllables, visible in words like minint (vs. standard minant 'to pass') or in Corintia, the name of Carinthia which spread to the standard (vs. Corantia in some conservative southern dialects)
Retention of nasality and extension toward previously non-nasalized contexts. Some of these nasal phonemes later underwent changes (/ʊ̃/ merged with /œ̃/, /ĩ/ lowered to [ɪ̃ ~ ẽ])
Realization of œ as rounded [œ̈] in stressed syllables
General preservation of L-Ł distinction, with some dialects experiencing ṡuapanie (realization of [ɫ] as [w])
y is closer [ɪi̯]
Uvular realization of k as [q]. This is likely caused by the lack of voiced counterpart after g became ɣ
Retention of voiced final obstruents in the western parts
Preservation of instrumental case and dual number in some conservative dialects
Active participles of i- and e-stem verbs are formed with -je- (vidient vs. standard vidiant)
Eastern dialects experience feminization of neuter gender
High degree of German loanwords

Upper

The Upper dialect is spoken in the majority of Upper Carniola and Lubiana. It is often considered "transitional" between Central and Carinthian dialects. Its main characteristics distinguishing it from the standard include:

The accent is predominantly penultimate, although some valley dialects retain stem-initial accent with varying degree of length-syllable correlation
Lenition of voiced stops varies from medial positions in the north and in the valleys to no lenition at all in the south
Some subdialects preserve monophthongal ea [æ]
L-Ł distinction in most parts, lost in the southern areas
Delabialization [ɒ] > [ɑ]
Voicing of final obstruents is retained in the Selsa subdialect
Some dialects experience masculinization of neuter gender
Majority of dialects do not alter stem-final velar consonants in the nominative plural of masculine hard declension (bœcki vs. standard bœci)

Lower

The Lower dialect is the most divergent from the standard and has developed as transitional between Carnian and Slovene. It is spoken in the Carnian part of Lower Carniola south and east of Lubiana, as well as in the border areas in Slovenia. Its main characteristics:

The western part agrees with the Upper dialect in terms of penultimate accent, although the eastern parts retain old free accent with shifts influenced by the Lower Carnian dialect of Slovene
Pitch contours often mismatch with the standard and align with Slovene words
Since stem-initial accent never arose here, the syncope is very weak and limited to high vowels only
The reflexes of liquid metathesis often agree with South Slavic pattern
Early denasalization: *ę > ä, *ǫ > å, in some regions raised to e and o
œ realized as ï [ɪ ~ ɘ]
*ě > ie
Lack of geminated consonants
y is either diphthongal [ɪi̯] or monophthongal [iː]
-je- form of active participle in i- and e-stem verbs
Fossilized locative and dual expressions

Central

The Central dialect is spoken in the Littoral and most of Inner Carniola, making it the largest dialect in Carnia. Due to geographical and historical reasons, it is the most diverse group. The coastal regions and Gorsa surroundings show significant Romance (mostly Venetian and Friulian) influence, while the mountainous eastern part around Route exhibits some well-preserved conservative features. While peripheral in the Middle Ages, it rose to prominence in Early Modern times and eventually became the base for Standard Carnian.

The features differentiating it from the standard include:

y ranges from [ɛɪ̯] to [aɪ̯]
No lenition, except Inner Carniolan dialects with consistent spirantization g > ɣ
Loss of pitch accent in some dialects
Voiced final obstruents are preserved in easternmost dialects
Rhotacization of the infinitive suffix -t > -r in the southwestern coastal regions
Mixed use of kei and cie 'what', the latter being used in the southwestern parts
Higher degree of Romance loanwords
Loss of animacy distinction in majority of Obale-Cars region
Neuter-masculine merger (with singular nominative ending in -o/-e) in the most Romanized dialects

Gorso-Tresten

Gorso-Tresten is a subdialect of the Central dialect group spoken in the northwestern Obale-Cars, covering the areas around Gorsa and Trest, the Cars plateau between them, and extending into the lower Santia valley and Vipava valley. Throughout its history, this region experienced intensive contact with Friulian due to its position within the medieval Patriarchate of Aquileia, which is evident in the subdialect's extensive Friulian-derived vocabulary. Gorso-Tresten is primarily distinguished by its retention of a synthetic imperfect tense, which arose from the merger of the Proto-Slavic aorist and imperfect forms. As the most Romance-influenced Carnian variety, it also exhibits complete neuter-masculine merger and lacks animacy distinctions in nominal declension.

Kvarner

The Kvarner dialect, spoken in Istria and Libursca, represents a type of newer, mixed dialect which evolved as a consequence of Carnian territorial expansion southwards. It evolved from the mix of the traditional dialects, primarily Central, and had been significantly influenced by Chakavian and local Romance varieties. While those influences were stronger locally (i.e., Romance in western Istria and Reaca, Chakavian in the other areas), those features are found beyond the borders of the traditional settlement due to population mixing.

Main features:

Weak to no vowel reduction. It should not be understood as the lack of reduction, but rather as fuller realization of unstressed vowels (e.g., [ɔ ~ o̞] instead of [ɞ])
Moderate and varying degree of syncope
The accent is predominantly penultimate. Eastern Istria and Gorski Kotar exhibit some degree of free accent influenced by Chakavian. Parts of Cres preserve stem-initial accent
Presence of pitch accent with tones often agreeing with the Chakavian words
cie or cia instead of kei
Lack of geminated consonants
ea either merged with e or a, or decomposed to [ɛ.ä]
œ usually merged with a, except for Reaca agglomeration which has standard [ɜ]
Non-palatal tzacavizm: ċ, ṡ, and ġ are replaced with tz, s, and z, or transitive tzj, sj, zj. This is most common in eastern Istria and on the islands
Varying degree of accent retraction in place of old word-final nasal vowels (blocked entirely in areas with stem-initial accent)
Mid vowels are often true mid [e̞] and [o̞]
The realization of y ranges from [ei] to [iː]
The infinitive is usually long -ti, with rhotacization to -ri, -re, or -r in western Istria
Fossilized instrumental and locative expressions
High degree of Romance and Chakavian loanwords
Presence of unadapted ć and đ in Chakavian loanwords
Loss of animacy distinction in Western Istria
Neuter-masculine merger in the Western Istria dialects

Fyn

Fyn [fɛ̂ɪ̯n], also known as Posh Carnian, is a sociolect of Carnian spoken primarily in the metropolitan areas of Lubiana, Trest, and Reaca, and to lesser extent in other cities like Gorsa or Coper. It emerged in the late 19th century among administrative and commercial elites as a marker of education and cosmopolitanism. Originally characteristic of the upper classes, it spread throughout the 20th century and gradually became the standard pronunciation in metropolitan cores. While working-class speakers in all three major cities now use Fyn features naturally, the variety remains largely absent in smaller towns and rural dialects, where it is sometimes perceived as affected or pretentious.

Main characteristics:

R-vocalization in coda: /ɾ/ either disappears with compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel or vocalizes to [ə̯]. Mid and open vowels typically trigger lengthening (e.g., er [ɛː], ar [aː]), while high vowels are either lowered and merged (ir, ur, œr [œ̈ː]) or form centering diphthongs [ɪə̯], [ʊ̟ə̯]. These long vowels occur regardless of syllable structure, making vowel length phonemic in Fyn.
Merger of e and ea into [ɛ]
Realization of œ as rounded [œ̈]
Diphthongization of long close vowels: [iː] and [ʊ̟ː] become [ɪj] and [ʊ̟w] respectively
Merger of many imperfective-perfective pairs into biaspectual verbs
Consistent use of indefinite articles, unlike standard Carnian where jen is often omitted