Preliminary communication

https://doi.org/10.31820/f.37.2.9

Dialectological Description of the Basic Phonological and Morphological Features in the Local Dialect of Lovinac (Municipality Poličnik)

Ivan Magaš orcid.org/0000-0003-2483-3341

Abstract

This paper provides a dialectological description of the local dialect of Lovinac, a village in Zadar County (Municipality of Poličnik). The purpose of the study is to analyze this Ravni Kotari local dialect, which has not yet been mentioned in dialectological literature, and thereby contribute to a more complete linguistic picture of the broader Zadar area. Based on audio recordings of the speech of the oldest resident of Lovinac, the paper presents the most important phonological features, along with selected data from morphological level. Certain characteristics of the Lovinac dialect are observed in the context of Neo-Štokavian Ikavian local dialects of the Zadar region and the broader Zadar mainland linguistic area in general. The description shows that the Lovinac dialect, in its main phonological features, is a typical Neo-Štokavian Ikavian local dialect of the Zadar hinterland: it is characterized by the use of štakavizam (consonant group *sk’/st’ > št), the distinction between pairs of palatal affricates, the reduction of unstressed vowel i, and the change of the vowel o to u before nasal sonorants. Among the general linguistic features of the broader Zadar mainland area, the following stand out: the interrogativerelative pronoun što [what], a modified present tense of the verb ići [to go] (“ien”, “ieš”, etc.), and a significant number of fully preserved infinitives.

Keywords

dialectology; Neo-Štokavian Ikavian; Lovinac; Zadar area

Hrčak ID:

342894

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/342894

Publication date:

31.12.2025.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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