The Kozje-Bizeljsko dialect ( ), also known as the Breà ¾ice-Kozje dialect (' ) or the Bizeljsko-Sotla dialect ( ), is a Slovene dialect spoken in southern Styria. As opposed to the Lower Sava Valley dialect, it is a more typical Styrian dialect, but it still shows some transitional nature with the Lower Carniolan dialect. It borders the Lower Sava Valley dialect to the west, the Central Styrian dialect to the north, the Kajkavian Zagorje-MeÃÂimurje dialect to the northeast, and the Lower Sutlan dialect to the southeast. The dialect belongs to the Styrian dialect group and evolved from the Southern Styrian dialect base.
The dialect is spoken in southern Styria, in the far northeast of the Lower Sava Valley, east of Mount Bohor, in the Kozje region (), and extending north up to Jezerce pri Dobjem and PodÃÂetrtek. It also extends to Croatia, in Kumrovec and Dubravica. Significant settlements include PodÃÂetrtek, Dobje pri Planini, à ½egar, Planina pri Sevnici, Pilà ¡tanj, Kozje, Kumrovec, Bistrica ob Sotli, Podsreda, Bizeljsko, Pià ¡ece, Kapele, Dobova, and Breà ¾ice.
The dialect has lost pitch accent as all other Styrian dialects and has recently also lost length distinctions because all of the short vowels have lengthened. In transitional microdialect of Mostec, the short accent in monosyllabic words remained short and the former acute accent is bimoraic, but the circumflex is monomoraic. It has undergone the â , â and â accent shifts. Because of simplification of accent in declension, some microdialects have also morphologically correlated > accent shift.
Because the dialect lies on the border with the Lower Carniolan dialect base (Lower Sava Valley dialect) and Kajkavian, all diphthongs have monophthongized, which is a rarity for Slovene dialects (the major exception, however, is most of the Upper Carniolan dialect, on which Standard Slovene is based). The only known microdialect with diphthongs for historically long vowels is that of LesiÃÂno.
Long yat (*ÃÂÃÂ) and non-final short yat (*ÃÂÃÂ-) turned into äàor eàin the northwest, around Planina pri Sevnici even to aÃÂ, elsewhere it turned into ẹÃÂ. Other long or later lengthened e-like vowels all turned into äÃÂ/eàin the north, eàin the central area (where they have a different reflex than *ÃÂÃÂ), and ẹàin the south. Syllabic *à ÂÃ¥àand *à Â/*ò- have the same reflex, which is uàin the whole area. Nasal *àand *ëÃÂ- are pronounced as á»Âàin most of the area; in some microdialects in the north and central area, as well as in the transitional microdialect of Mostec, it is pronounced as uÃÂ. *à « is centralized (üÃÂ). The long and later lengthened vowels *àand *ë evolved in a typically Styrian manner into oàand iÃÂ/iÃÂ<sup>iï</sup>, respectively, although *àretains its original pronunciation as aàin some southern microdialects and is pronounced as Ã¥àin the transitional microdialect of Mostec. The southern (Bizeljsko) microdialects vocalized the long semivowel to aÃÂ/ÃÂ¥ÃÂ, whereas in the northern (Kozje) microdialects it has merged with *ÃÂàand *ÃÂ. High vowels are lowered before r, whereas stressed syllabic *rÃÂ¥ mostly developed into ar, and the unaccented version developed into ÃÂr.
Recently lengthened final short vowels show some more reduction. They often merged with already long vowels or turned into äÃÂ, ö, iÃÂ, etc. Vowels of the type *bràt turned into briÃÂ<sup>e</sup>t in the northwest. The semivowel in most microdialects turned into äÃÂ, ÃÂ¥ÃÂ, or eÃÂ. The same development is also true for stressed vowels after the accent shifts.
Soft *ú merged with *l, and *à  mostly turned into j, but might be realized as n at the end of a word. Sonorant *w turned into f before non-voiced non-sonorants and at the end of a word. It also appeared as a prothesis before *u as [v]. The cluster *à ¡Ã simplified into *à ¡. The clusters *tl, *tn, *dn, and *dl have sometimes turned into *kl, *kn, *gn, and *gl, respectively. Word-final *à  and *w also underwent major developments. They may have completely disappeared (e.g., fkraàin Sedlarjevo for 'ukradel'); other possibilities are also merging with the preceding vowel into o (typically Styrian) or u, as well as development into f (e.g., sá»Âf for sol in Nezbià ¡e).
The morphology is similar to other Styrian dialects. There is no distinction between soft and hard declensions, and the analogical t/d in l-participles before -l are mostly undeveloped. It still has mixed accent, but it is often replaced due to the > accent shift. The Styrian feature of the a-stem instrumental singular ending -oj (instead of -o) is common only in the south.