Carinthia (German: Kärnten, Slovenian: Koroška) is one of the southernmost German states or Land. Situated within the Eastern alps it is chiefly noted for its mountains and lakes. The people are predominantly German-speaking with a unique (and easily recognizable) Southern Austro-Bavarian dialect typical of which is that all short German vowels before double consonants have been lengthened ("Carinthian Vowel Stretching"). A Slovene-speaking minority ( 12,554 people or 2.38% of a total population of 527,333, according to the national census of 2001 ) is concentrated in the southeast of the country.