The Rižana subdialect is a Slovene subdialect in the Littoral dialect group

Littoral dialect group

The Littoral dialect group is a group of very heterogeneous dialects of Slovene. The Littoral dialects are spoken in most of the Slovenian Littoral and in the western part of Inner Carniola; they are also spoken by Slovenes in the Italian provinces of Trieste and Gorizia, and...

. It is spoken in Italy in the settlements of Aquilinia  and Muggia

Muggia

Muggia is a small Italian comune in the extreme south-east of Trieste lying on the border with Slovenia.Muggia is the last and only flap of Istria still in Italian territory, after the dissolution of the Free Territory of Trieste in 1954....

  south of Trieste

Trieste

Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...

, and in Slovenia in the Rižana

Rižana

Rižana is a settlement in the Koper Municipality in the Littoral region of Slovenia.-External links:*...

 Valley from Koper eastwards, including the settlements of Bertoki

Bertoki

Bertoki is a settlement in the Municipality of Koper in the Littoral region of Slovenia.The Parish Church in the settlement is dedicated to the Assumption of The Virgin.-External links:*...

, Dekani

Dekani

Dekani is a settlement in the Municipality pf Koper in the Littoral region of Slovenia.The local church is dedicated to the Assumption of Mary and was originally built in 1229 and remodeled at the end of the 15th century.-External links:*...

, Osp

Osp

Osp is a village in the Municipality of Koper in the Littoral region of Slovenia.-Overview:The Osp Valley is a passage through the karst and coastal region of Istria. It extends from below the village of Črni Kal to the sea. The valley was shaped by the Ospo River. Osp is also one of the oldest...

, Črni Kal

Crni Kal

Črni Kal is a village in southwestern Slovenia in the Municipality of Koper. It is best known today for the Črni Kal viaduct, the highest bridge in the Slovenia.-Overview:The village has some good examples of traditional Karst architecture...

, Presnica

Prešnica

Prešnica is a village in the Municipality of Hrpelje-Kozina in the Littoral region of Slovenia.The local church is dedicated to Saint Gertrude and belongs to the Parish of Klanec.-External links:*...

, Podgorje

Podgorje, Koper

Podgorje is a village in the Municipality of Koper in the Littoral region of Slovenia on the border with Croatia.-Overview:The parish church in the settlement is dedicated to Saint Sabbas....

, and Zazid

Zazid

Zazid is a village in the Municipality of Koper in the Littoral region of Slovenia on the border with Croatia.The local church is dedicated to Saint Martin and belongs to the Parish of Predloka.-External links:*...

.

Phonological and morphological characteristics

Like the 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...

, the Rižana subdialect is based on characteristics of the Lower Carniolan

Lower Carniolan dialect group

The Lower Carniolan dialect group is a group of closely related dialects of Slovene. The Lower Carniolan dialects are spoken in most of Lower Carniola and in the eastern half of Inner Carniola....

 and Littoral

Littoral dialect group

The Littoral dialect group is a group of very heterogeneous dialects of Slovene. The Littoral dialects are spoken in most of the Slovenian Littoral and in the western part of Inner Carniola; they are also spoken by Slovenes in the Italian provinces of Trieste and Gorizia, and...

 dialect groups. Accented vowels do not have a length contrast. Secondary palatalization of the velars k g h has arisen before front vowels. Verbal conjugation

Grammatical conjugation

In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...

 lacks the dual

Dual (grammatical number)

Dual is a grammatical number that some languages use in addition to singular and plural. When a noun or pronoun appears in dual form, it is interpreted as referring to precisely two of the entities identified by the noun or pronoun...

. The two subdialects share many lexical features, with many loanword

Loanword

A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...

s from Romance languages

Romance languages

The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...

.