Debar dialect

The Debar dialect on the map of the Macedonian dialects

The Debar dialect (Macedonian: Дебарски дијалект, Debarski dijalekt) is a member of the subgroup of the western and north-western dialects of the western group of dialects of the Macedonian language. The dialect is mainly spoken in the city of Debar and the surrounding areas in Macedonia. The Debar dialect is closed with the Reka dialect and the dialect of Galicnik. In the dialect are used a lot of archaic words.

Phonological characteristics

• fixed accent
• /d͡ʒ/ deaffricated and merged with /ʒ/
• the Proto-Slavic *ǫ has denazalized to [o] (*rǫka → рока)
• use of o instead of the soft form (крв > корв)
• absence of the intervocalic [v] in the plural forms of monosyllabic nouns (e.g. лебо(в)и, дождо(в)и, etc.)

Morphological characteristics

• use of ќа instead of ќе
• three definite articles pertaining to the position of the object (see Macedonian grammar)
• use of the suffix -т for third person singular

Notes

Dialects of Macedonian Western Central Prilep-Bitola Kičevo-Poreče Skopje-Veles Western and northwestern Upper Polog Debar Drimkol-Golo Brdo Galičnik Reka Vevčani-Radožda Struga Ohrid Upper Prespa Lower Prespa Northern Eastern Kumanovo2 Kratovo Kriva Palanka Ovče Pole Western Skopska crna Gora Lower Polog Gora2 Southeastern Eastern Štip - Kočani Strumica Tikveš-Mariovo Maleševo-Pirin1 Southeastern Solun-Voden1 Ser-Drama-Lagadin-Nevrokop1 Nestram-Kostenar Kostur Korča 1 Also considered a dialect of Bulgarian. 2 Considered to be a part of the transitional Torlak dialect and as a subdialect of Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Serbo-Croatian.