[4][6] The dialect is spoken in southern Styria, in the far northeast of the Lower Sava Valley, east of Mount Bohor, in the Kozje region (Slovene: Kozjansko), and extending north up to Jezerce pri Dobjem and Podčetrtek.

Significant settlements include Podčetrtek, Dobje pri Planini, Žegar, Planina pri Sevnici, Pilštanj, Kozje, Kumrovec, Bistrica ob Sotli, Podsreda, Bizeljsko, Pišece, Kapele, Dobova, and Brežice.

Other long or later lengthened e-like vowels all turned into äː/eː in the north, eː in the central area (where they have a different reflex than *ě̄), and ẹː in the south.

The long and later lengthened vowels *ā and *ī evolved in a typically Styrian manner into oː and iː/iːi̯, respectively, although *ā retains its original pronunciation as aː in some southern microdialects and is pronounced as åː in the transitional microdialect of Mostec.

The clusters *tl, *tn, *dn, and *dl have sometimes turned into *kl, *kn, *gn, and *gl, respectively.

They may have completely disappeared (e.g., fkraː in 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., sọf for sol in Nezbiše).

The Styrian feature of the a-stem instrumental singular ending -oj (instead of -o) is common only in the south.