The Littoral dialect group (primorska narečna skupina) is a group of very heterogeneous dialects of Slovene. The Littoral dialects are spoken in most of the Slovenian Littoral (except for the area around Tolmin and Cerkno

Cerkno

Cerkno is a small town and a municipality in the Littoral region of Slovenia.It has around 2,000 inhabitants and is the administrative centre of the Cerkno hills...

, where Rovte dialects are spoken) and in the western part of Inner Carniola; they are also spoken by Slovenes in the Italian provinces of Trieste

Province of Trieste

The Province of Trieste is a province in the autonomous Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Trieste.It has an area of 212 km², and a total population of 236,520...

 and Gorizia

Province of Gorizia

The Province of Gorizia is a province in the autonomous Friuli–Venezia Giulia region of Italy.-Overview:Its capital is the city of Gorizia. It belonged to the Province of Udine between 1924 and 1927 and the communes of Sonzia, Plezzo, Bergogna, Caporetto, Tolmino, Circhina, Santa Lucia d'Isonzo,...

, and in the mountainous areas of eastern Friuli

Friuli

Friuli is an area of northeastern Italy with its own particular cultural and historical identity. It comprises the major part of the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, i.e. the province of Udine, Pordenone, Gorizia, excluding Trieste...

 (Venetian Slovenia

Venetian Slovenia

Venetian Slovenia is a small mountainous region in northeastern Italy . Most of the region is located in the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, in the area between the towns of Cividale del Friuli, Tarcento and Gemona ....

 and Resia

Resia

Resia is a comune in the Province of Udine in the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. It is located in the Alpine valley with the same name, about 90 km northwest of Trieste and about 35 km north of Udine, on the border with Slovenia and around 20 km from the border with Austria...

).

Phonological and morphological characteristics

Among other features, this group is characterized by diphthongization of yat

Yat

Yat or Jat is the thirty-second letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet. Its name in Old Church Slavonic is jěd’ or iad’ . In the common scientific Latin transliteration for old Slavic languages, the letter is represented by e with caron: .The yat represented a Common Slavic long vowel...

 > ie and o > uo, and late denasalization of *ę and *ǫ. The western dialects in this group have preserved pitch accent

Pitch accent

Pitch accent is a linguistic term of convenience for a variety of restricted tone systems that use variations in pitch to give prominence to a syllable or mora within a word. The placement of this tone or the way it is realized can give different meanings to otherwise similar words...

 whereas the others have a non-tonal stress accent

Stress (linguistics)

In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...

.

Individual dialects and subdialects

• Resia(n) dialect
  Resian dialect
  The Resian dialect is a distinct dialect of Slovene spoken in the Resia Valley, Province of Udine, Italy, close to the border with Slovenia...
  
   (rezijansko narečje, rezijanščina) (Italy)
• Soča
  Soca
  The Soča or Isonzo is a 140 km long river that flows through western Slovenia and northeastern Italy. An Alpine river in character, its source lies in the Trenta Valley in the Julian Alps in Slovenia, at an elevation of around 1,100 metres...
  
   dialect (obsoško narečje)
• Torre/Ter Valley dialect (tersko narečje, terščina) (Italy)
• Natisone/Nadiža Valley
  Natisone
  The Natisone is a river that flows for some time as a border river between Slovenia and Italy, continues in Slovenia and then crosses the border and continues in Eastern Friuli, in north-eastern Italy...
  
   dialect (nadiško narečje, nadiščina) (Italy)
• Gorizia Hills
  Goriška
  Goriška is a traditional region in western Slovenia on the border with Italy. The name means "the Gorizia region" because it is named after Gorizia, Italy. It is part of the wider traditional region of the Slovenian Littoral . Its principal urban center is Nova Gorica...
  
   dialect (briško narečje, briščina)
• Karst
  KARST
  Kilometer-square Area Radio Synthesis Telescope is a Chinese telescope project to which FAST is a forerunner. KARST is a set of large spherical reflectors on karst landforms, which are bowlshaped limestone sinkholes named after the Kras region in Slovenia and Northern Italy. It will consist of...
  
   dialect (kraško narečje, kraščina)
  • Banjšice subdialect (banjski govor)
• Istria
  Istria
  Istria , formerly Histria , is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic between the Gulf of Trieste and the Bay of Kvarner...
  
  n dialect (istrsko narečje, istrščina)
  • Rižana subdialect
    Rižana subdialect
    The Rižana subdialect is a Slovene subdialect in the Littoral dialect group. It is spoken in Italy in the settlements of Aquilinia and Muggia south of Trieste, and in Slovenia in the Rižana Valley from Koper eastwards, including the settlements of Bertoki, Dekani, Osp, Črni Kal, Presnica,...
    
     (rižanski govor)
  • Šavrini Hills subdialect
    Šavrini Hills subdialect
    The Šavrini Hills subdialect is a Slovene subdialect in the Littoral dialect group. It is spoken south of a line from Koper to south of Zazid...
    
     (šavrinski govor, šavrinščina)
• Inner Carniolan dialect (notranjsko narečje, notranjščina)
• Ćićarija/Čičarija
  Ćićarija
  Ćićarija is a mountainous plateau in the northern and north-eastern part of Istria peninsula, 45 km long and 10–15 km wide. It mostly lies in Croatia, while its northern part lies in Slovenia...
  
  dialect (čiško narečje)