The Šavrini Hills subdialect (šavrinski govor, šavrinščina) 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 south of a line from Koper to south of 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:*...

. It includes the settlements of Koper, Izola

Izola

Izola is an old fishing city and a municipality in southwestern Slovenia on the Adriatic coast of the Istrian peninsula. Its name originates from the Italian Isola, which means island.- History :...

, Portorož

Portorož

- External links :**...

, Sečovlje

Secovlje

Sečovlje is a settlement in the Municipality of Piran in the Littoral region of Slovenia.-Overview:This is the last Slovenian settlement before the Slovenia-Croatia border. This village was once the centre of Slovenian salt production, now its main source of income is tourism at the Sečovlje...

, Šmarje

Šmarje, Koper

Šmarje is a village in the Municipality of Koper in the Littoral region of Slovenia.The parish church in the settlement is dedicated to the Virgin Mary.-External links:*...

, Sočerga

Socerga

Sočerga is a village in the Municipality of Koper in the Littoral region of Slovenia.The parish church in the settlement is dedicated to Saint Justus and Saint Euphemia. Another church outside the settlement, belonging to the same parish, is dedicated to Saint Quiricus and the settlement gets its...

, and Rakitovec

Rakitovec, Koper

Rakitovec 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 James and belongs to the parish of Predloka.-External links:*...

.

Phonological and morphological characteristics

Like the Rižana subdialect

Rižana subdialect

The Rižana subdialect is a Slovene subdialect in the Littoral dialect group. It is spoken in Italy in the settlements of Aquilinia and Muggia south of Trieste, and in Slovenia in the Rižana Valley from Koper eastwards, including the settlements of Bertoki, Dekani, Osp, Črni Kal, Presnica,...

, the Šavrini Hills 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. The Šavrini Hills subdialect is additionally based on a mixture of Slovene, Croatian

Croatian language

Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...

, and 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....

 dialect elements connected with the settlement of the Uskoks

Uskoks

The Uskoks were Croatian Habsburg soldiers that inhabited the areas of the eastern Adriatic and the surrounding territories during the Ottoman wars in Europe. Etymologically, the word uskoci itself means "the ones who jumped in" in Croatian...

 in Istria in the 16th and 17th centuries. Accented vowels do not have a length contrast. The vowel system differs from the Rižana subdialect in that the long accented vowels are monophthongal. 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 Šavrini Hills subdialect shares many lexical features with the Rižana subdialect

Rižana subdialect

The Rižana subdialect is a Slovene subdialect in the Littoral dialect group. It is spoken in Italy in the settlements of Aquilinia and Muggia south of Trieste, and in Slovenia in the Rižana Valley from Koper eastwards, including the settlements of Bertoki, Dekani, Osp, Črni Kal, Presnica,...

, 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...

.