Serbo-Croatian phonology

Serbo-Croatian is a South Slavic language with four very similar national standards. This article deals exclusively with the Eastern Herzegovinian Neo-Shtokavian dialect, the basis for the official standard of Yugoslavia and its present-day forms of Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian.

All lexemes are spelled in accented form in both scripts (Gaj's Latin and Vuk's Cyrillic), as well as in both accents where these differ (Ijekavian and Ekavian, with Ijekavian bracketed). Translations are given as tooltips, and can be seen by hovering the cursor over a marked entry.

Contents

Consonants

The consonant system of Serbo-Croatian has 25 phonemes. One peculiarity is a presence of both post-alveolar and palatal affricates, but a lack of corresponding palatal fricatives.[1]

Labial Alveolar Post-
alveolar		 Palatal Velar
Nasal /m/
m • м		 /n/
n • н		 /ɲ/
nj • њ
Plosive /p/
p • п		 /b/
b • б		 /t/
t • т		 /d/
d • д		 /k/
k • к		 /ɡ/
g • г
Affricate /ts/
c • ц		 /tʃ/
č • ч		 /dʒ/
dž • џ		 /tɕ/
ć • ћ		 /dʑ/
đ • ђ
Fricative /f/
f • ф		 /s/
s • с		 /z/
z • з		 /ʃ/
š • ш		 /ʒ/
ž • ж		 /x/
h • х
Approximant /ʋ/
v • в		 /j/
j • ј
Lateral /l/
l • л		 /ʎ/
lj • љ
Trill /r/
r • р

/ʋ/ is often described as a (lowered) fricative [v̞],[1][2] which is phonetically closer than [ʋ]. However, it does not interact with unvoiced consonants in clusters as a fricative would, and so is considered to be an approximant phonologically.

/r/ can be syllabic, short or long, and carry rising or falling tone. E.g. kȓv • кр̑в "blood", sȑce • ср̏це "heart", sŕna • ср́на "deer", mȉlosr̄đe • ми̏лоср̄ђе "compassion". It is typically realized by inserting a preceding or (more rarely) succeeding non-phonemic vocalic glide.[3]

/l/ is generally velarized ("dark", [ɫ]).[4] Diachronically, it was fully vocalized into /o/ in coda positions, as in past participle *radil • радил : radio • радиo.[5] In some dialects, notably Torlakian, that process did not take place, and /l/ can be syllabic as well. However, in the standard language, vocalic /l/ appears only in loanwords, as in the name for the Czech river Vltava for instance, or дебакл • debakl, бицикл • bicikl. Very rarely other sonorants are syllabic, such as /ʎ̩/ in the surname Štarklj and /n̩/ in njutn "newton".

In more detailed phonetic studies, post-alveolars (/ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/) are described as apical ([ʃ̺] [ʒ̺], [t̺ʃ̺ʷ], [d̺ʒ̺ʷ])[1] or retroflex ([ʂ], [ʐ], [tʂ], [dʐ]).[6][7] In most spoken Croatian idioms, as well as in some Bosnian, there is a complete or partial merger between post-alveolar (/tʃ/, /dʒ/) and palatal affricates (/tɕ/, /dʑ/).

Alveolo-palatal fricatives [ɕ], [ʑ] are marginal phonemes, usually realized as [sj], [zj]. However, emerging Montenegrin standard has proposed two additional letters, Latin ⟨Ś⟩, ⟨Ź⟩ and Cyrillic ⟨Ć⟩, ⟨З́⟩, for the phonemic sequences /sj/, /zj/, which may be realized phonetically as [ɕ], [ʑ].

Voicing contrasts are neutralized in consonant clusters, so that all obstruents are either voiced or voiceless depending on the voicing of the final consonant, though this process of voicing assimilation may be blocked by syllable boundaries.

Vowels

The Serbo-Croatian vowel system is symmetrically composed of five monophthongal vowels: a/а, e/е, i/и, o/о, u/у.[1] Although phonemic, the difference between long and short vowels is not represented in standard orthography.

Front Central Back
Close /i/ /u/
Mid /e̞/ /o̞/
Open /a/

The long Ijekavian reflex of Proto-Slavic jat is of disputed status. The prescriptive grammar Barić et al. (1997) published by the foremost Croatian normative body—the Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics, describes it as a diphthong,[8] but this norm has been heavily criticized by phoneticians as having no foundation in the spoken language, the alleged diphthong being called a "phantom phoneme".[9] Thus the reflex of long jat, which is spelled as a trigraph ⟨ije⟩ in standard Croatian, Bosnian and Ijekavian Serbian, represents the sequence /jeː/. /j/ resulting from such a sequence can optionally palatalize the presiding /l/ and /n/, yielding dual pronunciations, e.g. mlijéko • млије́ко (< Proto-West-South-Slavic *mlěko) as both [mʎěːko] and [mljěːko].

All of the vowels can be long or short, and when stressed carry one of the two basic tones, rising and falling.

Pitch accent

Shtokavian dialects allow two tones on stressed syllables, and have distinctive vowel length, and so distinguish four combinations of these, called pitch accent: short falling ⟨◌̏⟩, short rising ⟨◌̀⟩, long falling ⟨◌̑⟩, and long rising ⟨◌́⟩. The accent is said to be relatively free as it can be manifested in any syllable but the last one. Accent alternations are very frequent in inflectional paradigms, both by quality and placement in the word (the so-called "mobile paradigms", which were present in the PIE itself but in Proto-Balto-Slavic have become much more widespread). Different inflected forms of the same lexeme can exhibit all four accents: lònac • ло̀нац (nominative sg.), lónca • ло́нца (genitive sg.), lȏnci • ло̑нци (nominative pl.), lȍnācā • ло̏на̄ц (genitive pl.).

Although distinctions of pitch only occur on stressed syllables, unstressed vowels maintain a length distinction. Pretonic syllables are always short, but posttonic syllables may be either short or long. These are traditionally counted as two additional accents. In the standard language, the six accents are realized as follows:

Slavicist
symbol		 IPA
symbol		 Description
e [e] non-tonic short vowel
ē [eː] non-tonic long vowel
è [ě] short vowel with rising tone
é [ěː] long vowel with rising tone
ȅ [ê] short vowel with falling tone
ȇ [êː] long vowel with falling tone

Examples are short falling as in nȅbo 'sky' /ˈnêbo/; long falling as in pîvo 'beer' /ˈpîːvo/; short rising as in màskara 'eye makeup' /ˈmǎskara/; long rising as in čokoláda 'chocolate' /tʃokoˈlǎːda/. Unstressed long syllables can occur only after the accented syllable, as in d(j)èvōjka 'girl' /ˈd(ј)ěʋoːjka/ or dòstavljānje 'delivering' /ˈdǒstaʋʎaːɲe/. There can be more than one post-accent length in a word, notably in genitive plural of nouns: kȍcka 'cube' → kȍcākā 'of cubes'. Realization of the accents varies by region.

Restrictions on the distribution of the accent depend, beside the position of the syllable, also on its quality, as not every kind of accent can be manifested in every syllable.

  1. Falling tone generally occurs in monosyllabic words or the first syllable of a word (pȃs • па̑с, rȏg • ро̑г; bȁba • ба̏ба, lȃđa • ла̑ђа; kȕćica • ку̏ћица, Kȃrlovac • Ка̑рловац). The only exception to this rule are the interjections, i.e. words uttered in the state of excitement (e.g. ahȁ • аха̏, ohȏ • охо̑)
  2. Rising tone generally occurs in every syllable of a word except the ultimate and never in monosyllabics (vòda • во̀да, lȗka • лу̑ка; lìvada • лѝвада, lúpānje • лу́па̄ње; siròta • сиро̀та, počétak • поче́так; crvotòčina • црвото̀чина, oslobođénje • ослобође́ње).

Thus, monosyllabics generally have falling tone, whilst polysyllabics generally have falling or rising tone on the first syllable, and rising in all the other syllables but the last one. The tonal opposition rising ~ falling is hence generally only possible in the first accented syllable of polysyllabic words, while the opposition by lengths, long ~ short, is possible even in the non-accented syllable as well as in the post-accented syllable (but not in the pre-accented position).

Proclitics (clitics which latch on to a following word), on the other hand, may "steal" a falling tone (but not a rising tone) from the following mono- or disyllabic word. This stolen accent is always short, and may end up being either falling or rising on the proclitic. This phenomenon (accent shift to proclitic) is most frequent in the spoken idioms of Bosnia, in Serbian it is more limited (normally, with negation proclitic ne/не), and is almost absent from Croatian Neoštokavian idioms.[2] Short rising accent resists such shift better than the falling one (as seen in the example /ʒěliːm/ → /ne ʒěliːm/)

in isolation with proclitic
Croatian Serbian Bosnian English
rising /ʒěliːm/ I want /neʒěliːm/ I don't want
/zǐːma/ winter /uzîːmu/ /ûziːmu/ in the winter
/nemɔɡǔːtɕnɔːst/ inability /unemɔɡǔːtɕnɔsti/ not being able to
falling /vîdiːm/ I see /něvidiːm/ I can't see
/ɡrâːd/ city /uɡrâːd/ /ûɡraːd/ to the city (stays falling)
/ʃûma/ forest /uʃûmi/ /ǔʃumi/ in the forest (becomes rising)

Morphophonemic alternations

Serbo-Croatian exhibits a number of morphophonological alternations. Some of them are inherited from Proto-Slavic and are shared with other Slavic languages, and some of them are exclusive to Serbo-Croatian, representing later innovation.

Fleeting a

The so-called "fleeting a" (Serbo-Croatian: nepóstojānō a • непо́стоја̄но̄ а), or "movable a", refers to the phenomenon of vowel /a/ making apparently random appearance and loss in certain inflected forms of nouns. This is a result of different types of reflexes Common Slavic jers */ъ/ and */ь/, which in Štokavian and Čakavian dialects merged to one schwa-like sound, which was lost in a weak position and vocalized to */a/ in a strong position, giving rise to what is apparently unpredictable alternation. In most of the cases, this has led to such /a/ appearing in word forms ending in consonant clusters, but not in forms with vowel ending.

The "fleeting a" is the most common in following cases:

The only exceptions are some borrowed words:

mànijāk • ма̀нија̄к - mànijāka • ма̀нија̄ка (gen. sg.) - mànijāci • ма̀нија̄ци (nom. pl.)

Palatalization

Further information: Slavic first palatalization

The reflex of the Slavic first palatalization was retained in Serbo-Croatian as an alternation of

/k/ → /č/
/g/ → /ž/
/h/ → /š/

before /e/ in inflection, and before /j/, /i/, /e/ and some other segments in word formation.[10] This alternation is prominently featured in several characteristic cases:

There are some exceptions to the process of palatalization. The conditions are:

Doublets exist with adjectives derived with suffix -in • -ин from trisyllabic proper names:

Sibilantization

Further information: Slavic second palatalization and Slavic third palatalization

The output of the second and the third Slavic palatalization is in the Serbo-Croatian grammar tradition known as "sibilantization" (sibilarizácija/сибилариза́ција). It results in the following alternations:

/k/ → /ts/
/g/ → /z/
/h/ → /s/

before /i/. This alternation is prominently featured in several characteristic cases:

In two cases there is an exception to sibilantization:

Doublets are allowed in the following cases:

Iotation

Main article: Iotation

[1]

Assimilation

There are two types of consonant assimilation: by voicing (jednačenje po zvučnosti) and by place of articulation (jednačenje po mestu tvorbe).

Assimilation by voicing

All consonants in clusters are neutralized by voicing, but Serbo-Croatian does not exhibit final obstruent devoicing as most other Slavic Languages.[12] Assimilation is practically always regressive, i.e. voicing of the group is determined by voicing of the last consonant.[13] Sonants are exempted from assimilation, so it affects only the following consonants:

Furthermore, /f/, /x/ and /ts/ don't have voiced counterparts, so they trigger the assimilation, but are not affected by it.[13]

As can be seen above, assimilation is generally reflected in orthography. However, there are numerous orthographic exceptions, i.e. even if voicing or devoicing does take place in speech, the orthography does not record it, usually to maintain the etymology clearer.

Assimilation by place of articulation

Assimilation by place of articulation affects /s/ and /z/ in front of (post)alveolars /ʃ/, /ʒ/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/, /tɕ/, /dʑ/, as well as palatals /ʎ/ and /ɲ/, rendering /ʃ/ or /ʒ/:[13]

Simultaneously, assimilation by voicing is triggered if necessary.

L-vocalization

See also: L vocalization

A historical /l/ in coda position has become /o/ and is now so spelled, and produces an additional syllable. For example, the Serbo-Croatian name of Belgrade is Beograd. However, in Croatian, the process is partially reversed; compare Croatian stol, vol, sol vs. Serbian sto, vo, so (meaning "table", "ox" and "salt").

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Bruce Morén (2005), Consonant-Vowel Interactions in Serbian: Features, Representations and Constraint Interactions, Center for Advanced Study of Theoretical Linguistics, Tromsø, http://www.hum.uit.no/a/moren/SerbianMorenRevised.pdf 
  2. ^ a b Wayles Brown and Theresa Alt (2004), A Handbook of Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian, SEELRC, http://seelrc.org:8080/grammar/mainframe.jsp?nLanguageID=1 
  3. ^ Trubetskoi, Nikolai S (1969), Principles of phonology. (Grundzüge der Phonologie), University of California Press, p. 59, http://books.google.com/books?id=Ej6ENdUGS-UC&pg=PA59#v=onepage&q&f=false 
  4. ^ Diana Archangeli, Jeff Berry. "Dark and light /l/s in Georgian". University of Arizona. p. 5. http://www.u.arizona.edu/~jjberry/ArchangeliBerry.pdf. 
  5. ^ Wyn Johnson, David Britain (2007), "L-vocalisation as a natural phenomenon: explorations in sociophonology", Language Sciences (29): 304, http://www.englang.ed.ac.uk/iep/9j&b.pdf 
  6. ^ P. A. Keating (1991). C. Paradis & J.-F. Prunet. ed. Coronal places of articulation. Academic Press. p. 35. http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/keating/coronals.pdf. 
  7. ^ Małgorzata E. Ćavar (2011). "Merger of the place contrast in the posterior sibilants in Croatian". http://www.cavar.me/malgosia/resources/FDSL2009-Paper-MC.pdf. 
  8. ^ Barić et al. (1997:49) "Prednji je i složeni samoglasnik, dvoglasnik (diftong) ie. Pri njegovu su izgovoru govorni organi najprije u položaju sličnom kao pri izgovoru glasa i, a onda postupno prelaze u položaj za izgovor glasa e. U hrvatskom književnom jeziku dvoglasnik je ie ravan diftong."
  9. ^ Kapović (2007:66) "Iako se odraz dugoga jata u kojem ijekavskom govoru možda i može opisati kao dvoglas, on tu u standardu sasma sigurno nije. Taj tobožnji dvoglas treba maknuti iz priručnikâ standardnoga jezika jer nema nikakve koristi od uvođenja fantomskih fonema bez ikakve podloge u standardnojezičnoj stvarnosti."
  10. ^ Browne (1993:312)
  11. ^ This is stylistically marked form: the usual plural form of vrȃg • вра̑г is with -ov- interfix: vrȁgovi • вра̏гови; accusative plural: vrȁgove • вра̏гове, but the infix is inhibiting the environment conditioning the palatalization, so the short plural form was provided.
  12. ^ Kenstowicz, Abu-Mansour, and Törkenczy, Two notes on laryngeal licensing, MIT, p. 7, http://web.mit.edu/linguistics/people/faculty/kenstowicz/laryngeal_licensing.doc 
  13. ^ a b c "Jednačenje suglasnika po zvučnosti" (in Serbian). http://www.srpskijezickiatelje.com/pravopis:jednacenje-po-zvucnosti. 

References

External links