Prilep-Bitola dialect


[Image:Macedonian Slavic dialects.png|right|thumb|300px|Dialectal divisions of Macedonia.]
The Prilep-Bitola dialect is a member of the central subgroup of the western group of dialects of Macedonian. This dialect is spoken in much of the Pelagonia region, as well as by the Slavic-speaking minority population in and around Florina in neighbouring Greek Macedonia. The Prilep-Bitola dialect, along with other peripheral west-central dialects, provides much of the basis for modern Standard Macedonian. Prestige dialects have developed in the cities of Bitola and Prilep.

Phonological characteristics

The phonological characteristics of the Bitola-Prilep dialect which can also be found in the other peripheral dialects are:
  • mostly antepenultimate word stress ;
  • Proto-Slavic *ǫ has reflexed into :
  • except for the Prilep sub-dialects, Bitola sub-dialects have two phonemic lateral consonants :
  • while most Macedonian dialects have a phonemic, many sub-dialects of the Prilep-Bitola dialect—with the exception of urban prestige dialects—instead have :
  • the palatal affricates are typically prepalatalized: свеќа is realized as, меѓа is realized as and in Prilep, especially in younger speakers as and ;
  • *a similar features occurs with the palatal nasal: јадење is realized as ;
  • the etymological in initial position has been lost in a number of instances:
  • *in the sequences *vs- and *vz-, as is the case in the standard; e.g. сè from the earlier *все, зема from the earlier *взема;
  • *in a handful of words where the pronunciation was "evened up" with that of their antonyms: натре from the earlier внатре as per надвор, ногу from the earlier многу as per малку ;
  • intervocalic consonant elision is typical of this dialect, and elided forms are in free variation with non-elided forms:
  • *elision of the intervocalic :
  • **in the plural forms of monosyllabic nouns, e.g. лебои:
  • insertion of and into consonant clusters -- and --, respectively; for example, from the earlier and from the earlier .
  • use of /v/ instead of the archaic /x/: страх > страв ;
  • In the sub-dialect of Bukovo-Orehovo, especially among the oldest generations:
  • *while is an allophone of in most dialects, in this dialect is used instead; ex.:
  • *the phoneme mutates to when preceding an affricate or iotated consonant with the exception of suffixes; ex.:
  • *the Proto-Slavic syllabic *l̥ has reflexed into, e.g. *sъlnьce >, *vьlkъ > .

Morphological characteristics

  • tripartite definite article pertaining to the position of the object ;
  • use of the preposition во or в ;
  • use of the grammatical construction have + past participle: имам работено ;
  • merger of thematic е-group verbs to и-group verbs; e.g. јаде → јади ;
  • the third-person personal pronouns: тој, та/таа/таја, то, тие/тија ;
  • *some of the outermost dialects of the Lerin subdialect have он, она, то, они;
  • imperfective verbs are typically derived from perfective verbs by means of the suffix –ва in Bitola dialects, but standard -ува in Prilep dialects;
  • 'expansion' where other dialects have palatalization: падина versus the standard паѓа;
  • use of the oblique form for proper names;
  • no distinction between masculine and feminine short possessive pronouns, i.e. consistent use of му and го for both genders, in Bitola dialects, but they are used in the plural third person in Prilep;
  • use of -јќум and -јким instead of the standard -јќи for the gerund, in older speakers, e.g. одејќум.

Typical words

  • чупе 'girl'
  • преѓе, преѓеска 'recently, lately'
  • модистра 'seamstress'
  • бендиса 'to have a liking for something or someone', 'to fancy'
  • сурат 'face'
  • плусне 'to fire '
  • капнат 'exhausted'
  • греда 'plank', 'beam '