Southern Valencian

Upper Southern Valencian

The variety of Upper Souther Valencian includes all the comarques south of the Xúquer river, up to the line that joins the town of Biar with Busot. This dialectal zone is also known as General Valencian.^[4]

Within the area of Upper Southern Valencian, there are further subareas:^[6]

• The inland zone (the comarques of Costera, Vall d'Albaida, Comtat, and Alcoià) has the following phonological and morphological features:
  • Final stops are elided after nasals and liquids (camp 'field', cent 'hundred', molt 'very'); or the falling diphthong /uj/ in cuit ('boiled') and buit ('empty').
  • Es (or se) is used instead of mos ('we') and vos ('you') in reflexive functions, like Central Valencian: es rentem, es renteu instead of mos rentem, vos renteu ('we clean ourselves', 'you clean yourselves').
• The coastal zone (the comarques of Safor and Marina Alta) has the following phonological and morphological features:
  • Final /a/ backs to [ɒ] (xica > xic[ɒ] 'girl') and where are pronounced the stops of camp, cent, molt.^{[clarification needed]}
  • [j] becomes silent in caixa ('box') and peix ('fish'), and it is used in the diphthong /wi/ in cuit ('boiled') and buit ('empty')
  • Substitution of mos and vos for es is less frequent, especially in the case of mos: mos volem 'we want us', mo(s) n'anem (often simplified to mone) 'we're leaving' (inland zone: es/se volem, se n'anem).
• Some features of Mallorcan influence in Marina Alta and Tàrbena (Marina Baixa) are:^[5]
  • Final /ɾ/ is unstable at points of the region: it is elided in Bolulla and Pedreguer, and is unstable in Dénia and Xàbia.
  • Elision of /j/ in the digraph ⟨ix⟩: caixa > caxa, peix > pex.^{[needs IPA]} This elision also exists in the neighbouring region of Safor (except in Gandia).
  • Differentiated articulation of ⟨j-g⟩ and ⟨tj-tg⟩ between vowels: the affricated geminated sound of ⟨-tj-⟩/⟨-tg-⟩, /d͡ːʒ/, as opposed to the simple affricate of ⟨-j-⟩/⟨-g-⟩, /d͡ʒ/. This is still active in some villages of Marina Alta (Benissa, Senija, Xaló, Teulada, etc.). In addition to this, two villages (Benissa and Senija) feature the deaffrication of ⟨-j-⟩/⟨-g-⟩, like in Majorcan and Northern Valencian.
  • Apheresis of initial ⟨a⟩:^{[needs IPA]} nar instead of anar ('to go'), ribar instead of arribar ('to arrive').
  • Pronunciation of unstressed /a/ followed by stressed /i/ as [ə]: raïm [rəˈim] ('grape'), matí [məˈti] ('morning'). Final /a/ is close to [ə] in Benissa, Gata and Pedreguer: xica [ˈt͡ʃikə] ('girl'), mosca [ˈmoskə] ('fly').^[7][5]
  • Vowel /ɛ/ in fr[ɛ]d^{[needs IPA]} ('cold') and prim[ɛ]r^{[needs IPA]} ('first'), resembelling the Majorcan sound [ə].^{[clarification needed]}
  • Move from tonic /a/ to [ɛ], tr[ɛ]ure^{[needs IPA]} ('take out'), m[ɛ]ula^{[needs IPA]} ('trap').
  • Raising of unstressed /a/ > [e] in nedar^{[needs IPA]} ('to swim') and by extension in nede^{[needs IPA]} ('I swim'), nedes^{[needs IPA]} ('you swim'), etc.
  • Alternation between the unstressed sounds [a] and [e], resembelling the Majorcan mid central vowel [ə]: devant (davant)^{[needs IPA]} 'in front', d'ecí (d'ací)^{[needs IPA]} 'from here', caregol (caragol)^{[needs IPA]} 'snail', llevor (llavor)^{[needs IPA]} 'seed', al gos (el gos)^{[needs IPA]} 'the dog', as diu (es diu)^{[needs IPA]} 's/he's called', famella (femella)^{[needs IPA]} 'female', etc.
  • Remains of the insularic consonantal assimilations: etzamen (examen)^{[needs IPA]} 'exam', catsot (capsot)^{[needs IPA]} 'big headed', datsa (dacsa)^{[needs IPA]} 'corn', dissatte (dissabte)^{[needs IPA]} 'Saturday'.^{[clarification needed]}

Lower Southern Valencian

This dialect is called Alacantí Valencian (valencià alacantí) by some manuals^[which?] of dialectology. To avoid confusion between the different dialectal realities of the comarques of this provincial demarcation, it is best^{[weasel words]} using the term Southern or Lower Southern to describe the speeches that extend to the south of the line that links the settlements of Biar and Busot, that includes the south of Alcoià, Alacantí and the valleys of the river Vinalopó.^[5]

Some distinctive features of this dialect are:^[8]

• /j/ becomes silent in faixa ('strip, girdle'), reixa ('grid') and mateix ('same') > faxa, rexa and matex; like in Safor and Marina Alta.
• Final /ɾ/ is maintained in the coastal regions, but similar to the Valencian spoken in Castellón de la Plana, it is elided when the verb is accompanied by enclitics (especially pronouns): saluda(r)-te ('greet you'), endu(r)-se ('take away'). In Elx, it is also elided in the plain verbs of the second conjugation: vénce(r), córre(r).
• The diphthong of cuina is falling [uj], like in a large part of the Upper Southern Valencian dialect, and also in Catalonia and the islands.
• Intervocalic /d/ is elided in the suffixes -ada and -ador, and also in -uda: grenyu(d)a ('dishevelled'), panxu(d)a ('big-bellied'), etc. In Elx and Guardamar, almost every ⟨d⟩ between vowels is elided, also by syntactic phonetics: El Nal que ve anirem a la boa d'exa ona grenyua que viu al carre(r) (d)e la Roa (Standard Valencian: El Nadal que ve anirem a la boda d'eixa dona grenyuda que viu al carrer de la Roda) 'The following Christmas we will go to the wedding of that dishevelled woman who lives in the street of the Wheel'.
• The suffix -esa [eza] is commonly reduced to /ea/: bellea [beˈʎea] 'beauty'.

The region of the Vinalopó Valley and neighbouring areas form a dialectal zone within the Lower Southern dialect with the following phonological features:^[8]

• Final /ɾ/ elision: treballa(r), millo(r).
• Stops become silent in camp, cent and molt.^{[clarification needed]}
• The diphthongs /ɔw/ (phonetically [ɒw]) and /aw/ (phonetically [ɑw]) become homophones as [ɑw] (transcribed as /aw/ for simplicity). Ou ('egg') is pronounced the same as au ('bird') and pou ('well') the same as pau ('peace').
• The diphthong ⟨ui⟩^{[needs IPA]} in buit and cuit is rising like in general Valencian, and it is not falling like in the rest of the Lower Souther dialect.

The Lower Southern dialect has the following morphological features:^[9]

• The article is invariable for the masculine and the feminine: es vaques and es bous for les vaques and els bous.
• Ací is not present in the demonstrative system, there is only aquí (proximal), ahí (medial), and allà (distal). However, only aquí and allà are used by the most conservative speakers.
• The general demonstrative açò is replaced by astò, and the pronoun li is changed to se when pronouns are combined: se la donarem, dóna-se-la instead of li la donarem ('we will give it to her'), dóna-li-la ('give it to her').
• The full forms of the pronouns me, te, se, ne, mos, vos do never reduce, including in enclitic position: me pareix que ta tia se troba malalta, posa-te la jaqueta i anem a vore-la (em pareix que ta tia es troba malalta, posa't la jaqueta i anem a vore-la) 'It seems to me your aunt is sick, put yourself a jacket and let's go to see her'.
• In verbal morphology, the suffixes -am and -au from the imperative and subjunctive (digam, digau) have evolved to -em and -eu (diguem, digueu), except in Elx, where the original forms survive.