The Lower Sava Valley dialect ( , ) is a Slovene dialect spoken in the Central and Lower Sava Valley. It is a transitional dialect between the Lower Carniolan and Styrian dialects. It borders the Lower Carniolan dialect to the west, Upper Carniolan dialect to the northwest, Central Savinja dialect to the north, Central Styrian dialect to the northeast, Kozje-Bizeljsko dialect to the east, and Lower Sutlan Kajkavian dialect to the south, as well as Chakavian and Eastern Herzegovian to the southeast. It is further divided into three subdialects: the northwestern Zagorje-Trbovlje subdialect, northeastern Laà ¡ko subdialect, and southern Sevnica-Krà ¡ko subdialect. The dialect belongs to the Styrian dialect group and evolved from Lower Carniolan dialect base.
The subdialects differ mostly by the amount of non-Lower Carniolan features. The Sevnica-Krà ¡ko subdialect is closest to the Lower Carniolan dialect, whereas the Laà ¡ko subdialect is closest to Styrian dialects. The Zagorje-Trbovlje subdialect is influenced by both Styrian and Upper Carniolan features, and it is generally closer to Standard Slovene because of immigration to this area.
The dialect is one of the most poorly studied dialects.
The dialect extends across the Central Sava Valley and most of the Lower Sava Valley, from Zgornji Log along the Sava River to the national border around Obreà ¾je. It also extends along the lower course of the Savinja River from Debro to the Sava River and along the Krka River from Kostanjevica na Krki eastward. The dialect is not spoken in the (north)eastern part of Lower Sava Valley in the area around Breà ¾ice, Dobova, and Koprivnica, where the Kozje-Bizeljsko dialect is spoken. The border with Serbo-Croatian dialects follows the national border, except for the villages of ÃÂreà ¡njevec, ÃÂrneÃÂa Vas, Oà ¡trc, Vrbje, and VrtaÃÂa, where Chakavian is traditionally spoken. The Sevnica-Krà ¡ko subdialect extends north up to Sopota, ÃÂimerno, RadeÃÂe, à ½irovnica, Podgorica, and Podgorje ob SevniÃÂni. The Laà ¡ko subdialect extends westward up to Obreà ¾je pri Zidanem Mostu, Senoà ¾ete, Rimske Toplice, Trnovo, and Zgornja ReÃÂica, whereas in Klenovo the Zagorje-Trbovlje subdialect is already spoken. Notable settlements include Sava, Litija, Polà ¡nik, Zagorje ob Savi, Trbovlje, Hrastnik, and Zidani Most in the Zagorje-Trbovlje subdialect, Rimske Toplice and Laà ¡ko in the Laà ¡ko subdialect, and RadeÃÂe, Loka pri Zidanem Mostu, Dolenji Boà ¡tanj, Sevnica, Blanca, Brestanica, Senovo, Krà ¡ko, Studenec, Leskovec pri Krà ¡kem, Raka, Cerklje ob Krki, PodboÃÂje, and Kostanjevica ob Krki in the Sevnica-Krà ¡ko subdialect.
The dialect differs significantly regarding accentual changes; however, the feature that forms of the dialect have in common (and also one of the defining things separating it from the Lower Carniolan dialect) is that pitch accent has been lost, as in all other Styrian dialects. The dialect is in the late stages of losing length distinctions because all short vowels tend to lengthen. In Kostanjevica ob Krki, short vowels are still more often represented by a short vowel, whereas in Strà ¾ià ¡ÃÂe only schwa (ÃÂ) can be short, and all vowels are long in Laà ¡ko.
The dialect has undergone the â shift, which is true for both the Styrian and Lower Carniolan dialects. It has also undergone the â accent shift and, as opposed to the Eastern Lower Carniolan subdialect, it is consistent. Most of the dialect also underwent the â shift, but only western parts of the Zagorje-Trbovlje subdialect have undergone it in most words, and the Sevnica-Krà ¡ko subdialect does not apply it consistently. In Kostanjevica ob Krki, such examples are rare (e.g., ÃÂdÃÂkle). There is also partial or full morphologization of accent (see the section Morphology).
The dialect has older Lower Carniolan features combined with younger Styrian features. It can be differentiated from other Styrian dialects primarily by having the same reflexes for Alpine Slovene long and non-final short vowels due to the early lengthening in the Lower Carniolan base (except for à Â/ò-, which also have different reflexes in other Lower Carniolan dialects) and the a reflex for Alpine Slavic long *ÃÂà(other Syrian dialects have an e reflex, except for the southern Central Savinja and Kozje-Bizeljsko dialects).
Alpine Slavic *ÃÂàevolved into eÃÂiï or has further simplified into ẹàor á¸ÂÃÂ, particularly in the Zagorje-Trbovlje subdialect. The vowels *ÃÂàand *àmerged and have an iÃÂe reflex. Nasal *àand non-final short *ò- have merged and have an uÃÂá» reflex, and in Laà ¡ko the reflex can be also uÃÂo or oÃÂ. Long *à  merged with *à « and is usually pronounced as uÃÂ. In some areas, however, it is pronounced as uç or even as uÃÂuï in some microdialects. Similar evolution also happened to *ë. Secondarily stressed *e and *o turned into iïeàand uïoÃÂ, respectively; in the Trbovlje microdialect, the first turned into iïç. Syllabic *à ÂÃ¥àturned into oÃÂu and *rÃ¥àturned into ÃÂ(ÃÂ)r, rarely into a(ÃÂ)r. Secondarily stressed *àcan also have the same reflexes as secondarily stressed *e.
Short stressed vowels tend to lengthen and sometimes also diphthongize. Short stressed *àand *àlengthened into ià(or sometimes eÃÂ) and uàin the east, but turned into *àin the west. There is limited akanye (*o/ë â *a); more common is ukanye (change to u), which is quite prominent in the Laà ¡ko subdialect. Many unstressed vowels were reduced to ÃÂ, particularly in the west. The Zagorje-Trbovlje subdialect also has the syllabic sonorants lÃÂ¥, mÃÂ¥, nÃÂ¥, rÃÂ¥, which formed after the neighboring unstressed vowels disappeared.
Palatal *ú merged with *l, whereas palatal *à  has different reflexes (n, j) varying between microdialects and different positions, but j is more common. Final non-sonorants became devoiced, and the cluster à ¡Ã simplified into à ¡, except at the beginning of a word in the Zagorje-Trbovlje subdialect. The phoneme *l turned into dark interdental everywhere except before *i and *u in the Zagorje-Trbovlje subdialect. The clusters ÃÂrÃÂ-, à ¾rÃÂ- retain the r in some words but not in others.
There is strong masculinization of the neuter and feminization in the plural (but the latter is rare in the Laà ¡ko subdialect). The long infinitive without final -i is used, except in parts of the Zagorje-Trbovlje subdialect, where the short infinitive is used. Verbs do not often follow the -a-ti -je-m paradigm common for Styrian dialects (e.g., umivati â umivljem 'wash'). In the Laà ¡ko subdialect, mobile accent on nouns is retained and mixed accent is still present, although sometimes lost. In the other two subdialects, the mixed and final accent was completely lost because of of accent. At least in the Zagorje-Trbovlje subdialect, the dialect has the Styrian ending -ma instead of -va for verbs in the first person dual.