Editing Serbo-Croatian (section)

== Phonology ==
{{Main|Serbo-Croatian phonology}}

=== Vowels ===
The Serbo-Croatian [[vowel]] system is simple, with only five vowels in Shtokavian. All vowels are [[monophthong]]s. The oral vowels are as follows:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! '''Latin script'''
! '''Cyrillic script'''
! '''[[help:IPA|IPA]]'''
! '''Description'''
! '''English approximation'''
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''a'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''а'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|a}}/
| [[Open central unrounded vowel|open central unrounded]]
| ''f'''a'''ther''
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''e'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''е'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|e}}/
| [[Mid front unrounded vowel|mid front unrounded]]
| ''d'''e'''n''
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''i'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''и'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|i}}/
| [[Close front unrounded vowel|close front unrounded]]
| ''s'''ee'''k''
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''o'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''о'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|o}}/
| [[Mid back rounded vowel|mid back rounded]]
| ''l'''o'''rd''
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''u'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''у'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|u}}/
| [[Close back rounded vowel|close back rounded]]
| ''p'''oo'''l''
|}

The vowels can be short or long, but the phonetic quality does not change depending on the length. In a word, vowels can be long in the stressed syllable and the syllables following it, never in the ones preceding it.

=== Consonants ===
The [[consonant]] system is more complicated, and its characteristic features are series of [[affricate]] and [[Palatal consonant|palatal]] consonants. As in English, [[voice (phonetics)|voice]] is [[phoneme|phonemic]], but [[aspiration (phonetics)|aspiration]] is not.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! '''Latin script'''
! '''Cyrillic script'''
! '''[[help:IPA|IPA]]'''
! '''Description{{Sfn | Kordić | 2006 | p = 5}}'''
! '''English approximation'''
|-
! colspan="6" | [[Trill consonant|trill]]
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''r'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''р'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|r}}/
| [[alveolar trill]]
| rolled (vibrating) '''r''' as in ''ca'''rr'''amba''
|-
! colspan="6" | [[approximants]]
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''v'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''в'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|ʋ}}/
| [[labiodental approximant]]
| roughly between '''''v'''ortex'' and '''''w'''ar''
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''j'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''ј'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|j}}/
| [[palatal approximant]]
| '''''y'''ear''
|-
! colspan="6" | [[Lateral consonant|laterals]]
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''l'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''л'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|l}}/
| [[alveolar lateral approximant]]
| '''''l'''ight''
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''lj'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''љ'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|ʎ}}/
| [[palatal lateral approximant]]
| roughly ''batta'''li'''on''
|-
! colspan="6" | [[Nasal stop|nasals]]
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''m'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''м'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|m}}/
| [[bilabial nasal]]
| '''''m'''an''
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''n'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''н'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|n}}/
| [[alveolar nasal]]
| '''''n'''ot''
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''nj'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''њ'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|ɲ}}/
| [[palatal nasal]]
| British '''''n'''ews'' or American ''ca'''ny'''on''
|-
! colspan="6" | [[fricatives]]
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''f'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''ф'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|f}}/
| [[voiceless labiodental fricative]]
| '''''f'''ive''
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | '''z'''
| style="text-align:center;" | '''з'''
| style="text-align:center;" | /{{IPA link|z}}/
| [[voiced dental sibilant]]
| '''''z'''ero''
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''s'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''с'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|s}}/
| [[voiceless dental sibilant]]
| '''''s'''ome''
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''ž'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''ж'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|ʒ}}/
| [[voiced postalveolar fricative]]
| ''televi'''si'''on''
|-
| style="text-align:center;" | '''š'''
| style="text-align:center;" | '''ш'''
| style="text-align:center;" | /{{IPA link|ʃ}}/
| [[voiceless postalveolar fricative]]
| '''''sh'''arp''
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''h'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''х'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|x}}/
| [[voiceless velar fricative]]
| ''lo'''ch'''''
|-
! colspan="6" | [[affricates]]
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''c'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''ц'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|t͡s}}/
| [[voiceless dental affricate]]
| ''po'''ts'''''
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''dž'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''џ'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|d͡ʒ}}/
| [[voiced postalveolar affricate]]
| as English '''''j'''am''
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''č'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''ч'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|t͡ʃ}}/
| [[voiceless postalveolar affricate]]
| as English '''''ch'''eck''
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''đ'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''ђ'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|d͡ʑ}}/
| [[voiced alveolo-palatal affricate]]
| roughly '''''j'''eans''
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''ć'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''ћ'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|t͡ɕ}}/
| [[voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate]]
| roughly '''''ch'''eese''
|-
! colspan="6" | [[plosives]]
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''b'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''б'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|b}}/
| [[voiced bilabial plosive]]
| '''''b'''ook''
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''p'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''п'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|p}}/
| [[voiceless bilabial plosive]]
| ''to'''p'''''
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''d'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''д'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|d}}/
| [[voiced dental plosive]]
| '''''d'''og''
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''t'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''т'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|t}}/
| [[voiceless dental plosive]]
| ''s'''t'''op''
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''g'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''г'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|ɡ}}/
| [[voiced velar plosive]]
| '''''g'''ood''
|-
| style="text-align:center;"| '''k'''
| style="text-align:center;"| '''к'''
| style="text-align:center;"| /{{IPA link|k}}/
| [[voiceless velar plosive]]
| ''du'''ck'''''
|}

In [[consonant cluster]]s all consonants are either voiced or voiceless. All the consonants are voiced if the last consonant is normally voiced or voiceless if the last consonant is normally voiceless. This rule does not apply to [[approximant]]s{{spaced ndash}}a consonant cluster may contain voiced approximants and voiceless consonants; as well as to foreign words (''Washington'' would be transcribed as ''VašinGton''), personal names and when consonants are not inside of one syllable.

{{IPA|/r/}} can be syllabic, playing the role of the syllable nucleus in certain words (occasionally, it can even have a long accent). For example, the [[tongue-twister]] ''navrh brda vrba mrda'' involves four words with syllabic {{IPA|/r/}}. A similar feature exists in [[Czech language|Czech]], [[Slovak language|Slovak]], and [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]]. Very rarely other sonorants can be syllabic, like {{IPA|/l/}} (in ''bicikl''), {{IPA|/ʎ/}} (surname ''Štarklj''), {{IPA|/n/}} (unit ''njutn''), as well as {{IPA|/m/}} and {{IPA|/ɲ/}} in [[slang]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}}

=== Pitch accent ===
{{Further|Pitch accent#Serbo-Croatian|Serbo-Croatian phonology#Pitch accent}}

Apart from [[Slovene language|Slovene]], Serbo-Croatian is the only Slavic language with a [[pitch accent]] (simple [[Tone (linguistics)|tone]]) system. This feature is present in some other [[Indo-European languages]], such as [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]], [[Ancient Greek]], and [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]]. Neo-Shtokavian Serbo-Croatian, which is used as the basis for standard Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian, has four "accents", which involve either a [[Tone contour|rising or falling tone]] on either long or short vowels, with optional post-tonic lengths:

{| class="wikitable"
|+Serbo-Croatian accent system
|-
!Slavicist<br />symbol!![[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]<br />symbol!!Description
|- style="text-align:center;"
|'''e'''||{{IPA|[e]}}||align="left"|non-tonic short vowel
|- style="text-align:center;"
|'''ē'''||{{IPA|[eː]}}||align="left"|non-tonic long vowel
|- style="text-align:center;"
|'''è'''||{{IPA|[ě]}}||align="left"|short vowel with rising tone
|- style="text-align:center;"
|'''é'''||{{IPA|[ěː]}}||align="left"|long vowel with rising tone
|- style="text-align:center;"
|'''ȅ'''||{{IPA|[ê]}}||align="left"|short vowel with falling tone
|- style="text-align:center;"
|'''ȇ'''||{{IPA|[êː]}}||align="left"|long vowel with falling tone
|}

The tone stressed vowels can be approximated in English with ''set'' vs. ''setting?'' said in isolation for a short tonic ''e,'' or ''leave'' vs. ''leaving?'' for a long tonic ''i,'' due to the [[prosody (linguistics)|prosody]] of final stressed syllables in English.

General accent rules in the standard language:

# Monosyllabic words may have only a falling tone (or no accent at all – [[enclitic]]s);
# Falling tone may occur only on the first syllable of polysyllabic words;
# Accent can never occur on the last syllable of polysyllabic words.

There are no other rules for accent placement, thus the accent of every word must be learned individually; furthermore, in inflection, accent shifts are common, both in type and position (the so-called "[[mobile paradigm]]s"). The second rule is not strictly obeyed, especially in borrowed words.

Comparative and historical linguistics offers some clues for memorising the accent position: If one compares many standard Serbo-Croatian words to e.g. [[cognate]] Russian words, the accent in the Serbo-Croatian word will be one syllable before the one in the Russian word, with the rising tone. Historically, the rising tone appeared when the place of the accent shifted to the preceding syllable (the so-called "Neo-Shtokavian retraction"), but the quality of this new accent was different – its melody still "gravitated" towards the original syllable. Most Shtokavian (Neo-Shtokavian) dialects underwent this shift, but Chakavian, Kajkavian and the Old-Shtokavian dialects did not.

Accent diacritics are not used in the ordinary orthography, but only in the linguistic or language-learning literature (e.g. dictionaries, orthography and grammar books). However, there are very few [[minimal pair]]s where an error in accent can lead to misunderstanding.