The area is therefore mostly limited to Upper Sava Valley, from Belca to Spodnji Hotič, but also extending eastwards along the Mošenik, Tržiška Bistrica, Kokra, Kamnik Bistrica, Drtijščica, Nevljica, and Šumščica rivers.

Significant settlements where the Upper Carniolan dialect is spoken are Mojstrana, Hrušica, Jesenice, Bled, Lesce, Bohinjska Bistrica, Radovljica, Tržič, Golnik, Naklo, Kokrica, Britof, Kranj, Šenčur, Cerklje na Gorenjskem, Mekinje, Kamnik, Vodice, Medvode, Zgornje Pirniče, Šmarca, Preserje pri Radomljah, Radomlje, Mengeš, Vir, Trzin, Domžale, Izlake, Brezovica pri Ljubljani, and Ljubljana.

The subdialect border roughly follows the line from Bela Peč via Snovik and Rafolče to Dol pri Ljubljani.

[7] The Upper Carniolan dialect evolved from southern proto-dialect, which was characterized by early lengthening of non-final vowels, which are now represented by the same sound.

Newly stressed *e and *o after the shift are open-mid eː and oː, but ended up as the diphthongs i̯e and u̯o in the subdialect.

Stops are devoiced and often spirantized at the end of a word, particularly b → f. There are many consonant cluster alterations in Upper Carniolan dialect, which vary heavily between microdialects; for example, *tk → xk, *kt → xt, *pt → xt, *pk → fk (rarely), *xt → ft, *pc → fc, *čk → šk, *čn → *šn, *šč → š, *pš → u̯š, *mn → u̯n, *mn → ml, and sometimes *w → l in the Topole microdialect.

[10] The dialect has strong and stereotypical masculinization of neuter gender in the singular and dual (e.g., majhen jajc instead of majhno jajce 'little egg') and feminization in the plural (e.g., majhne jajca instead of majhna jajca 'little eggs').