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Serbo-Croatian Phonemes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Carleton T. Hodge
Carleton T. Hodge*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
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Abstract

1. Phonetics

1.1. Phonemes:

Consonants: A. ptkcć čsš C. fh

B. bdg z ž v r 11‘ m n n’ j

Vowels: i e a o u r

Pitch-stress: ‘’

Junctures: close (no symbol), open (#:)

The division of consonant phonemes into groups A, B and C is on the basis 0 distribution (see 2.2).

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 22 , Issue 2: April-June , June 1946 , pp. 112 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © 1946 by the Linguistic Society of America

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Footnotes

1

This description is based on the speech of two informants, Daniel Stanich and Steve Boljanich. Where the two differ, emphasis is laid on the speech of the former. Both are Serbs from Croatia. I wish to express my gratitude to the American Council of Learned Societies for their sponsorship and support of this work. The present article is a by-product of work on Spoken Serbo-Croatian (USAFI, EM 573 and 574), a beginner's manual.

References

2 Compare particularly O. Broch, Slavische Phonetik; Heidelberg, 1911.

3 Compare G. L. Trager, Lang. 16.29-32 (1940). I have tried many times to get contrasts of ‘ and ‘ on short vowels, but with little success. There is apparently a contrast between séla ‘of a village’ and sèla “ villages' in Mr. Boljanich's speech, but the difference could not be traced in other morphemes. Mr. Stanich's speech, to the best of my hearing, has only the contrast ijé : ijè.

3a Six levels of pitch are indicated here, from 6 (highest) to 1 (lowest).

4 Compare Broch 327-31.

5 See, for example, Trager, Lang. 19.272 (1943).

6 See, for example, Josef Ivanić, Serbokroatische Sprachlehre 22, 23 (Wien, 1926).

7 See A. Leskien, Grammatik der Serbokroatischen Sprache 41-74 (Heidelberg, 1914). The present study is in some respects a supplement to Leskien's work, though it tries to go into more detail on medial and final clusters. As it is based on limited material, it cannot lay claim to completeness ; but on the other hand it takes into consideration a good many recent loans, which often enlarge the pattern.