Brda dialect
This article uses Logar transcription. The Brda dialect ( , ), or Gorizia Hills dialect, is a Slovene dialect spoken in the Gorizia Hills in Slovenia and Italy. It is known for extreme vowel reduction in final position. It borders the Natisone Valley dialect to the north and the Karst dialect to the east, and Friulian to the west. The dialect belongs to the Littoral dialect group, and it evolved from Venetian–Karst dialect base. It is spoken in a territory with around 6,000 Slovene speakers, most of whom have a degree of knowledge of the dialect. Geographical distribution 
The dialect is spoken west of the Soča River in the Gorizia Hills, extending from Lig in the north, along the Soča River in the east, up to Oslavia () and Gradiscutta () in the south and to Dolegna del Collio () in the west. In Slovenia, the dialect is spoken in most of the territory of the Municipality of Brda (except for its northwesternmost strip, where the Natisone Valley dialect is spoken) and in the westernmost part of the Municipality of Kanal ob Soči. Notable settlements include Hum, Kojsko, Kozana, Šmartno, Medana, Dobrovo, Plave, and Anhovo. In Italy, it is spoken in the northeastern area of the Province of Gorizia, in the municipalities of San Floriano del Collio (), and in part of the municipalities of Cormons () and Dolegna del Collio (). It is also spoken in the western suburbs of the town of Gorizia: in Piedimonte del Calvario (), Piuma (), and Oslavia. Accentual changes 
The Brda dialect lost pitch accent, unlike the nearby Natisone Valley and Torre Valley dialects; however, some southeastern microdialects (especially around Kojsko) have developed new tonal oppositions, which are morphologically correlated. These dialects distinguish between circumflex and acute accent on long vowels; short ones always have the same pitch. The dialect is in the late stages of losing length oppositions. It has undergone two accent shifts—the  →  and  →  accent shift in most of its territory—but some locales retain the initial accentuation. Phonology 
The Brda dialect has mostly uniform sounds for long vowels; however, for short vowels, sounds can vary drastically. The vowel  turned into . The vowels  and  are now both pronounced as , the first one in Kozana as  if not followed or preceded by a nasal consonant. The vowel  turned into . The vowel  turned into  in most microdialects; some speakers near the Karst dialect pronounce it as , and  is a diphthong  in most microdialects. Alpine Slavic  is still pronounced as  and  is still pronounced as . Syllabic  turned into  and  turned into . Newly accented  is pronounced as , and long  is pronounced as . In closed syllables, short  turned into ,  into , and , , and  into , lengthening in the process. The only unlengthened vowel is , which turned into  around Kojsko, but may have also turned into a long vowel in other microdialects. The vowel  before a stressed syllable usually turned into , although it also changes into . The vowels  and  before the stress turn into . Vowel  after the stress turned into . Final , , , and  are not pronounced anymore; the only exception is the third-person singular ending  (e.g., (on)  → ). Consonant changes are rather common in the Littoral dialects. Palatal  and  are pronounced the same in most microdialects; the latter turned into  in Kozana and west of that. The consonant  turned into  and into  at the end of a word. Final  turned into  in the west. The clusters , , and  turned into , , and , respectively. Morphology 
The Brda dialect has separate dual forms only in masculine o-stems in the nominative, vocative, and accusative cases; elsewhere they merged with the plural forms. A special case is the second-person plural, where the ending is  (from the dual form) and the ending  is used only for vikanje. The dialect uses the long infinitive, although final  is dropped, but the accent remains the same. Neuter nouns are feminized in the plural. The dialect also has different endings for the third-person plural form in the present tense. It is  in the west, but  in the east. The greatest changes to morphology occurred around Kojsko, where the declension fundamentally changed. Because of vowel reduction, most endings were lost, and so different cases have different tones—either circumflex or acute—which helps determine the case. A similar thing also happens with i-stem nouns when the ending is . References

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Slovene dialects