open e (from the original e). It lacks several palatals (ć, lj, nj, dž) found in the Shtokavian dialect, and has some loanwords from the nearby Slovene dialects and German (chiefly in towns). Example: Kak je, tak je; tak je navek bilo, kak bu tak bu, a bu vre nekak kak bu! Slovene dialects Slovene is mainly spoken in Slovenia. Spoken Slovene is often considered to have at least 37 dialects. The exact number of dialects is open to debate, ranging from as many as 50 to merely 7. However, this latter number usually refers to dialect groups, some of which are more heterogeneous than others. The various dialects can be so different from each other that a speaker of one dialect may have a very difficult time understanding a speaker of another, particularly if they belong to different regional groups. Some dialects spoken in southern Slovenia transition into Chakavian or Kajkavian Serbo-Croatian, while the transition from eastern dialects to Kajkavian is general, with cases of essentially the same linguistic variety spoken on both sides of the border (this is particularly true for the upper course of the Kupa and Sutla rivers). Comparison The table below compares grammatical and phonological innovations. The similarity of Kajkavian and Slovene is apparent. Grammar Eastern–Western division In broad terms, the Eastern dialects of South Slavic (Bulgarian and Macedonian) differ most from the Western dialects in the following ways: The Eastern dialects have almost completely lost their noun declensions, and have become entirely analytic. The Eastern dialects have developed definite-article suffixes similar to the other languages in the Balkan Sprachbund. The Eastern dialects have lost the infinitive; thus, the first-person singular (for Bulgarian) or the third-person singular (for Macedonian) are considered the main part of a verb. Sentences which would require an infinitive in other languages are constructed through a clause in Bulgarian, искам да ходя (iskam da hodya), "I want to go" (literally, "I want that I go"). Apart from these three main areas there are several smaller, significant differences: The Western dialects have three genders in both singular and plural (Slovene has dual—see below), while the Eastern dialects only have them in the singular—for example, Serbian on (he), ona (she), ono (it), oni (they, masc), one (they, fem), ona (they, neut); the Bulgarian te (they) and Macedonian тие (tie, 'they') covers the entire plural. Inheriting a generalization of another demonstrative as a base