Dialect classification of the local dialect of Ravna Gora in Gorski Kotar

Abstract

The article presents the local dialect of part of Ravna Gora (i.e. the larger western part - the hamlets of Stari Varoš, Jarak, Bajt and Vrh), which is located in the south of Gorski kotar in Croatia. Until now, the local dialect has been interpreted differently, namely as 1) an (immigrant) local dialect of the Rovte dialect group of the Slovenian language, 2) a Western goranski subdialect group of the mountain dialect within Kajkavian dialect group of the Croatian language, 3) a local dialect of the Kostel dialect of the Lower Carniolan dialect group of the Slovenian language. The newly collected dialectal material of the western part of Ravna Gora is presented, based on which its main linguistic (vocal, consonantal and prosody) characteristics are summarized. Due to the early lengthening of formerly shortened acute syllables in the penultimate syllable, the reflection for */*- is the same, namely ẹː. The reflections of e and o voices coincided: CSln. *ē/*è- = */*- > ẹː and CSln. *ō = *ò- = *ǭ/*- > ọː or less often ȯː. Reflection for CSln. *ī /*ì- and *ū/*ù- are i and u respectively iː and uː after secondary lengthening. The reflection of a persistently long semivowel and a newly acute semivowel in the penultimate syllable coincided with the reflection for CSln. *a, i.e. CSln. */*- = *ā/*à- > åː. Reflection for CSln. */*- is ọː. The reflexes of the unaccented e and o are e or eː and a or aː. For diphthongal declension in reflection for CSln. */*-, which is attested in rare cases, the paper allows the interpretation that it is an archaism. The local dialect knows several forms of modern vocal reduction ‒ complete pre-stressed aching, different development of voiced *-ǫ (> -a) and *-o (> -ȯ/-u). The local dialect made a retreat to the pre-accented stem and overstress and (partially) a tertiary retreat of the old circumflex. On the basis of the main vocal and consonantal developments and younger stress retreats, and with the attraction of additional definitional criteria (shortening of high vowels i and u, reflection for CSln. */*-, reflection for CSln. */*- and roll before mouthpieces and palatals, pre-accented ejaculation, the development of voiced *-o, the reflection of CSln. *ĺ and *ń and the development of voiced CSln. *-g), the local dialect of the western part of Ravna Gora is synchronously placed in the Rovte dialect group of the Slovenian language. The local dialect is shown on the Map of Slovenian dialects (version 2023).