Steppe dialect () belongs to the Southeastern group of Ukrainian dialects. Having formed in the 17âÂÂ19th centuries, it is the youngest Ukrainian dialect, as well as the most widespread geographically.
Steppe dialect is spoken in southern parts of Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk and Luhansk oblasts, as well as in Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Kherson oblasts, Crimea, and parts of Odesa and Mykolaiv oblasts. Outside of Ukraine's borders speakers of Steppe dialect live in the Krasnodar Krai of Russia and in southeastern Romania (Danube Delta).
The dialect was formed on the base of Middle Dnieprian and Slobozhan dialects with additional influence from Northern and Southwestern Ukrainian dialects, as well as from Russian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Serbian, Greek, German and other languages.
Like in other Southeastern dialects, àand àmay be replaced with ù and ò respectively. Consonants before [i]<[o],[e],[ÃÂ] may be palatalized or non-palatalized. Word-final phonemes [tás], [t], [r] are palatalized, but labial consonants [p], [b], [v], [m], [f] never undergo palatalization. There is no distinction between unstressed vowels [e] and [ê], sometimes also [o] and [u].
Infinitive verbs frequently end with ÃÂÃÂ. Both simple and complex future forms exist (ñÃÂôààþôøÃÂø, àþôøÃÂøüÃÂ). 3rd person singular verbs may take the form (òÃÂý) àóôõ, ÃÂóñõ; 1st person singular verbs - àþôÃÂÃÂ, üÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ; shortened forms of 3rd person verbs (òÃÂý) ÿøÃÂð, ÿþÃÂþÿð.
Among lexical features typical for the Steppe dialect is the use of words such as ñðúáù (bakáy) - "pothole", "pit", úðñøÃÂÃÂà(kabýtsia) - "open-air oven", úøÃÂô (kyrd) - "a large flock of sheep", ÃÂðÃÂô (gard) - "fishing hut", úøÃÂóáý (kyrhán) - "ice pit or reservoir used for preservation of fish", òáôð (váda) - "a trench used for irrigation of plants" etc.