Shtokavian Dialect - Relationship Towards Neighboring Dialects

Relationship Towards Neighboring Dialects

Shtokavian is characterized by a number of characteristic historical sound changes, accentual changes, changes in inflection, morphology and syntax. Some of these isoglosses are not exclusive and have also been shared by neighboring dialects, and some of them have only overwhelmingly but not completely been spread on the whole Štokavian area. The differences between Štokavian and the neighboring Eastern South Slavic dialects of Bulgaria and Macedonia are clear and largely shared with other Western South Slavic dialects, while the differences to the neighboring Western South Slavic dialect of Čakavian and Kajkavian are much more fluid in character, and the mutual influence of various subdialects and idioms play a more prominent role.

The main bundle of isoglosses separates Kajkavian and Slovenian dialects on the one hand from Štokavian and Čakavian on the other. These are::

1. long falling accent of newer origin (neocircumflex)
2. development of the consonant group rj (as opposed to consonant /r/) from former soft /r'/ before a vowel (e.g. morjem, zorja)
3. reflexes of /o/ or /ọ/ of the old Common Slavic nasal vowel /ǫ/, and not /u/
4. inflectional morpheme -o (as opposed to -ojo) in the instrumental singular of a-declension

Other characteristics distinguishing Kajkavian from Štokavian, beside the demonstrative/interrogatory pronoun kaj (as opposed to što/šta used in Štokavian), are:

1. a reflex of old semivowels of /ẹ/ (e.g. dẹn < Common Slavic *dьnь, pẹs < Common Slavic *pьsъ); closed /ẹ/ appearing also as a jat reflex
2. retention of word-final -l (e.g. došel, as opposed to Štokavian došao)
3. word-initial u- becoming v- (e.g. vuho, vuzel, vozek)
4. dephonemicization of affricates /č/ and /ć/ to some form of middle value
5. genitive plural of masculine nouns has the morpheme -of / -ef
6. syncretized dative, locative and instrumental plural has the ending -ami
7. the ending -me in the first-person plural present (e.g. vidime)
8. affix š in the formation of adjectival comparatives (e.g. debleši, slabeši)
9. supine
10. future tense formation in the form of bom/bum došel, došla, došlo

Characteristics distinguishing Čakavian from Štokavian, beside the demonstrative/interrogatory pronoun ča, are:

1. preservation of polytonic three-acentual system
2. vocalization of weak jers (e.g. malin/melin < Common Slavic *mъlinъ; cf. Štokavian mlin)
3. vowel /a/ as opposed to /e/ after palatal consonants /j/, /č/, /ž/ (e.g. Čk. jazik/zajik : Št. jezik, Čk. počati : Št. početi, Čk. žaja : Št. želja)
4. the appearance of extremely palatal /t'/ or /ć'/ (< earlier /t'/) and /j/ (< earlier /d'/) either in free positions or in groups št', žd'
5. depalatalization of /n'/ and /l'/
6. /ž/ instead of /dʒ/ (c.f. Čk. žep : Št. džep)
7. /č/ > /š/ (c.f. Čk. maška : Št. mačka)
8. word-initial consonant groups čr-, čri-, čre- (c.f. Čk. črivo/črevo : Št. cr(ij)evo, Čk. črn : Št. crn)
9. conditional mood with biš in the 2nd-person singular
10. non-syncretized dative, locative and instrumental plural