The Prilep-Bitola dialect is a member of the central subgroup of the western group of dialects

Dialects of the Macedonian language

The dialects of Macedonian comprise the Slavic dialects spoken in the Republic of Macedonia as well as some varieties spoken in the wider geographic region of Macedonia. They exist as part of the dialect continuum of South Slavic languages that joins the Macedonian language with Bulgarian to the...

 of the Macedonian language

Macedonian language

Macedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora...

. This dialect is spoken in much of the Pelagonia region

Pelagonia statistical region

The Pelagonia Statistical Region is one of eight arbitrary statistical regions in the Republic of Macedonia. It is located in southwestern part of the country along the eponymous plain. It borders Greece and Albania...

 (more specifically, the Bitola

Bitola municipality

Bitola is a municipality in southern Republic of Macedonia. Bitola is also the name of the city where the municipal seat is found. The municipality is located in the Pelagonia Statistical Region.-Geography:...

, Prilep

Prilep municipality

Prilep is a municipality in southern Republic of Macedonia. Prilep is also the name of the city where the municipal seat is found. It is located in the Pelagonia Statistical Region.-Geography:...

, Kruševo

Kruševo municipality

Kruševo is a municipality in central Republic of Macedonia. Kruševo is also the name of the town where the municipal seat is found. This municipality is part of the Pelagonia Statistical Region.-Geography:...

 and Demir Hisar municipalities

Demir Hisar municipality

Demir Hisar is a municipality in southwestern Republic of Macedonia. Demir Hisar, which means "iron fortress" in Turkish, is also the name of the town where the municipal seat is found...

), as well as by the Macedonian-speaking minority population in and around Florina

Florina

Florina is a town and municipality in mountainous northwestern Macedonia, Greece. Its motto is, 'Where Greece begins'. It is also the Metropolitan seat for the region. It lies in the central part of Florina peripheral unit, of which it is the capital. Florina belongs to the periphery of West...

 (Lerin) in neighbouring Greek Macedonia

Macedonia (Greece)

Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of Greece in Southern Europe. Macedonia is the largest and second most populous Greek region...

. The Prilep-Bitola dialect, along with other peripheral west-central dialects, provides much of the basis for modern Standard Macedonian

Standard Macedonian

Standard Macedonian or Literary Macedonian is the standard variety of the Macedonian language and official language of the Republic of Macedonia used as a written language, in formal contexts, and for communication between different dialect areas...

. Prestige dialects have developed in the cities of Bitola

Bitola

Bitola is a city in the southwestern part of the Republic of Macedonia. The city is an administrative, cultural, industrial, commercial, and educational centre. It is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia valley, surrounded by the Baba and Nidže mountains, 14 km north of the...

 and Prilep

Prilep

Prilep is the fourth largest city in the Republic of Macedonia. It has a population of 66,246 citizens. Prilep is known as "the city under Marko's Towers" because of its proximity to the towers of Prince Marko.-Name:...

.

Phonological characteristics

The phonological characteristics of the Bitola-Prilep dialect which also can also be found in the other peripheral dialects are:

• mostly antepenultimate word stress (see Macedonian phonology)
• the 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...
  
   has reflexed into /ɛ/
• as in most South(-Western) dialects, the central vowel /a/ is more fronted (i.e. a cardinal [a]) rather than the more central [ä] typical of other dialect groups
• the palatal affricates are typically prepalatalized: /ˈsvɛca/ is realized [ˈsvɛjca], /ˈmɛɟa/ is realized [ˈmɛjɟa]
• similarly, the palatal nasal is also prepalatalized: /ˈjadɛɲɛ/ is realized [ˈjadɛjnɛ]
• consonant elision
  Elision
  Elision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce...
  
   is typical of this dialect and occurs in the following environments:
  • the etymological /v/ in initial position has been lost in a number of instances:
    • in the sequences *vs- and *vz-; e.g. *vse > /sɛ/ (сè, "all"), *vzema > /ˈzɛma/ (зема, "to take") as is the case in the standard
    • in a handful of other words: /ˈtɔrnik/ for standard /ˈftɔrnik/ (вторник, "Tuesday"), /ˈnatrɛ/ for standard /ˈvnatrɛ/ (внатре, "inside")
      • the same process (bringing the pronunciation closer to their antonyms) also occurred with /ˈmnɔɡu/ (многу, "much", "a lot") → /ˈnɔɡu/
  • absence of the intervocalic /v/
    • in the plural forms of monosyllabic nouns, e.g. лебо(в)и:
• } → /ˈlɛbɔi/ (realized [ˈlɛbɔj])
  • • and in most other positions, e.g. то(в)ар:
• } → /ˈtɔar/ (realized [tɔa̯r])
  • certain short words (conjunctions, pronouns, adverbs, determiners, etc.) have undergone further elision, ex.:
    • sega → sea → /sa/ ("now")
    • tova → toa → /tɔ/ ("that")
    • koga → koa → /kɔ/ ("when")
• insertion of /t/ and /d/ into consonant clusters /sr/- and /zr/-, respectively; for example, /stram/ for the standard /sram/ (срам, "shame") and /zdrɛl/ for the standard /zrɛl/ (зрел, "ripe")
• In the sub-dialect of Bukovo
  Bukovo
  Bukovo is a village in the Bitola municipality near the town of Bitola in the Republic of Macedonia. The village is famous for its very spicy paprika.-History:...
  
  -Orehovo
  Orehovo
  Orehovo is a settlement in the Sevnica municipality in central Slovenia. It lies on the left bank of the river Sava to the northwest of Sevnica. The area was traditionally part of Lower Styria. The municipality is now included in the Lower Sava statistical region.-External links:*...
  
  , especially among the oldest generations:
  • while [ɫ] is an allophone of /l/ in most dialects (occurring in all positions except before front vowels and /j/, in this dialect [ɣ] is used instead: e.g. [ɡɣaː] for [ˈɡɫava] (глава, "head") and [ˈsɣama] for [ˈsɫama] (слама, "straw"))
  • the etymological /a/ mutates (is raised) to [ɛ̞] ([æ] ~ [ɛ]) when preceding an affricate
    Affricate consonant
    Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :...
    
     or iotated
    Iotation
    Iotation is a linguistic phenomenon very characteristic of the Slavic languages. It should not be confused with palatalization, which is an entirely different process....
    
     consonant, e.g. [ˈt͡ʃɛ̞ʃa] for /ˈt͡ʃaʃa/ (чаша, "cup")
  • the Proto-Slavic syllabic *l̥ has reflexed into /ə/, e.g. /ˈsənt͡sɛ/ ("sun") for the standard /ˈsɔnt͡sɛ/ and /vək/ ("wolf") for the standard /vɔlk/

Morphological characteristics

• three definite article
  Definite Article
  Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzard's 1996 performance released on VHS. It was recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre...
  
  s pertaining to the position of the object (see Macedonian grammar)
• the third-person personal pronouns: тој, та/таа/таја, то, тие/тија (he, she, it, they)
  • some of the outermost dialects of the Lerin subdialect have он, она, то, они
• imperfective
  Imperfective aspect
  The imperfective is a grammatical aspect used to describe a situation viewed with internal structure, such as ongoing, habitual, repeated, and similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future...
  
   verbs are typically derived from perfective
  Perfective aspect
  The perfective aspect , sometimes called the aoristic aspect, is a grammatical aspect used to describe a situation viewed as a simple whole, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. The perfective aspect is equivalent to the aspectual component of past perfective forms...
  
   verbs by means of the suffix –ва (e.g. зборва and боледва)
• 'expansion' where other dialects have palatalization: падина ("to fall", sing. present third-person) versus the standard паѓа
• the use of the inflectional suffix -и in third-person singular verbs (e.g. можи and биди versus the standard може and биде)
• use of the oblique form
  Oblique case
  An oblique case in linguistics is a noun case of synthetic languages that is used generally when a noun is the object of a verb or a preposition...
  
  for proper names
• no distinction between masculine and feminine short possessive pronouns, i.e. consistent use of му and го for both genders and also the plural third person

Typical Words

• Чупе – girl
• Преѓе(ска) – recently, lately
• Модистра – seamstress
• Бендиса – to have a liking for something or someone, to fancy
• Сурат – face

Typical words from the Lerin sub-dialect

• Пл'усна – fire a rifle
• Капнат – thirsty
• Гренди – timber

External links

• Dialectal dictionary of the Macedonian language dialect spoken in Oshchima (Trigonon), Greece