The location of the Upper Polog dialect among the others Macedonian dialects
The Upper Polog dialect (Macedonian: горнополошки дијалект, gornopološki dijalekt ) is a member of the western and north western subgroup of the western group of dialects of the Macedonian language. The dialect is mainly spoken in the area around the city of Gostivar to the villages Brvenica and Bogovinje on north, Reka region on west, Porčie on east and Galičnik on south. The dialect is closely related with the neighbouring dialects, particularly with the Kičevo-Poreče dialect, Reka dialect and Galičnik dialect. Also in some extent, the dialect shares some similarities with the Lower Polog dialect. The dialect is very well known for using masculine forms of direct and indirect objects, for male and female.[1]
Phonological characteristics
the yat has reflexed into [ɛ]: цена (cena, "price")
the Proto-Slavic *ǫ has denazalized to [a]
the older [x] has been replaced with [v] in most words: прах (prah) → прав (prav, "dust")
the consonant group цв- is substituted with цу-: цвет (cvet) → цут (cut, "flower")[2]
absence of the intervocalic [v] in the plural forms of monosyllabic nouns (e.g. лебо(в)и, дождо(в)и, etc.)
Morphological chacteristics
use of masculine direct and indirect object for males and females: Мај му ја топкава на Тони/ Дај му ја топкава на Ивона (Daj mu ja topkava na Toni/ Daj mu ja topkava na Ivona) - Give this ball to Toni/ Ivona;
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.
