 The most salient defining marker of the northern varieties is their treatment of unstressed vowels (so-called "northern vocalism"), while many southern varieties are characterised, among other things, by their palatalisation of velar consonants.Between these areas, in a contiguous area around the capital Athens (i.e.the regions of Attica and neighbouring parts of Boeotia, Euboia, the Peloponnese and nearby islands), there is a "dialectal void" where no distinctly marked traditional Greek dialects are found.