The Skopska Crna Gora dialect is a member of the western subgroup of the northern 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...

. The dialect is spoken on small territory northern of Skopje on the mountain Skopska Crna Gora

Skopska Crna Gora

Skopska Crna Gora , formerly called Kara-dagh also called simply Crna Gora, is a mountain range on the border between Kosovo and the Republic of Macedonia, between the cities of Kačanik and Skopje.The Monastery of St...

. The name of the dialect is derived from the name of the mountain because there is no larger city in that territory. The Skopska Crna Gora dialect is spoken in the villages Kučevište, Čučer-Sandevo

Cucer-Sandevo

Čučer-Sandevo is a village in Republic of Macedonia. It is a seat of the Čučer-Sandevo municipality....

, Mirkovci

Mirkovci

Mirkovci is a village and the suburb of town Vinkovci, in eastern Croatia. It is in the Syrmia region, located immediately southeast of Vinkovci. The Vinkovci-Gunja railway separates it from the rest of the city...

 and other smaller villages. Since this dialect is in the same group with the Lower Polog dialect

Lower Polog dialect

The Lower Polog dialect is a member of the western subgroup of the Northern group of dialects of the Macedonian language. It is spoken by the population in north-western Republic of Macedonia. This dialect is spoken in the city Tetovo, in the bigger villages Jegunovce, Vratnica, Tearce, Lešok,...

, they share many similarities on morphological and phonological level.

Phonological characteristics

• use of A instead of E: трева / treva > трава / trava (grass), орев / orev > орав / orav (nut);
• retained use of ъ Big Yer
  Yer
  The letter yer of the Cyrillic alphabet, also spelled jer or er, is known as the hard sign in the modern Russian and Rusyn alphabets and as er golyam in the Bulgarian alphabet...
  
  : лаже / laže > лъже / lăže (lie);
• use of U instead of the Old Church Slavonic letter ON: пат / pat > пут / put (road), внук / vnuk > унук / unuk (nephew).

The phonological characteristics are nearer standard Serbian

Serbian language

Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....

than Macedonian.

Morphological characteristics

• use of the letter V between vowels: тоа / toa > това / tova (that)
• palatal J before the letter E at the beginning of a word: јазик / jazik> језик / jezik (tongue), јаже > јуже (rope);
• the consonant group MN is replaced with the consonant group ML: многу / mnogu > млогу / mlogu (too much);
• use of the preposition U instead of the preposition VO: во град/ vo grad > у град / u grad (in city)

Typical Words

There are many words which are typical of the Skopska Crna Gora dialect.

• равно / ravno instead of рамно / ramno (flat)
• овоа / ovoa instead of ова / ova (this)
• плевна / plevna instead of племна / plemna