Serbo-Croatian Phonology

The phonology o f Serbo-C roatian d iffe rs s ig n ific a n tly fro m R ussian, p a rtic u la rly in the vowel system . The three prosodic features w hich conjoin in a single accented vowel in Russian each p a rticip a te separately in phonem ic d istin ctio n s in S -C .[2 ] d is trib u te d w ith in th e ir separate phonological constraints. Looking a t the three accentual fe atures — stress, d u ra tio n and p itch — the param eters in S-С accent present a com plex p ictu re . Stress is not w h o lly free, restricted fro m w ord -fin a l position in w ords o f g re a te r th a n one sylla b le ;[3 ]

T he fe ature o f p itch , since i t has tw o d is tin c tiv e c o n tra s tiv e p o ssibilities, is also phonem ic, b u t i t is alw a ys assigned in conjunction w ith the w ord stress. The fe a tu re o f vocalic quan- t it y functions phonem ically, th a t is, it is d is tin c tiv e ly co n tra stive both in accented and post-accented syllables, b u t i t is also a co rre la te o f w o rd accent in th a t accented syllab le s are q u a n tita tiv e ly longer th an th e ir unaccented c o u n te rp a rts .[4 ] A n o th e r com plication derives fro m the in te g rity o f vocalic q u a lity in S־C. T he degree to w hich unaccented vowels reduce is g e ne rally in sig n ifica n t, and c e rta in ly , u n lik e R ussian, in s u ffic ie n t fo r conveying in fo rm a tio n re g a rd in g the placem ent o f w ord accent.

Thus, the prosodic features o rd in a rily associated as in te g ra l p a n s in Russian accent — although they m ay be re d istrib u te d separately w ith in a poetic lin e fo r th e sake o f m e ter or rh ym e as discussed above — operate independently and q u ite d iffe re n tly in S*C. They are n o t alw ays a p a rt o f accent a t a ll — as in the case o f post-accented vocalic length — and som etim es not defined e n tire ly w ith in a single sylla b le nucleus — as is th e case o f the ris in g tone.[5 ]

Phonemic distin ction s am ong accented and post-accented vow els (in clu ding vocalic irf) in S-С occur n o t only in vow el q u a lity b u t also by the assignm ent o f d u ra tio n , p itc h and stress in accented vowels, and o f d u ra tio n in post-accented vowels. Pre-accented vowels are not d is tin c t prosodically. A ccordingly, a th re e -sylla b le w ord m a y obtain in one o f tw e n ty d iffe re n t configurations:

These tw e n ty d istin ctio n s re p re se n t the p o te n tia l fo r three s y lla b le w ords w ith in the sto- ka via n phonology. W hile no th re e syllab le noun o r verb w ill e x h ib it a ll these v a ria tio n s , it is q u ite re g u la r fo r a noun o r adjective to undergo prosodic change in its declension and fo r the re s u ltin g form s to be d is tin c t by p u re ly prosodic fe a tu re s, e.g. svedoka (gen. sg.) fsvedbfta (gen. p l.).

A t the phonetic level the situ a tio n is s till m ore com plex. Prosodic distinctiveness am ong c e rta in syllables som etim es obtains to a lesser degree th a n its phonem ic d istin ctio n w ould suggest. In continuous speech, stressed syllables c o n tra s t w ith both o th e r stressed syllables, long and short, as w e ll as w ith unstressed syllables. Since unaccented vow els do n o t reduce s ig n ific a n tly in vocalic q u a lity ,[6 ] the burden o f d is tin g u is h in g accented syllables fa lls m a in ly outside the d is trib u tio n o f q u a lita tiv e features o f vocalic allophones. A ltho ugh d u ra tio n is a phonem ic d is tin c tio n (e.g., pas — pás) it is s till a c o rre la te o f stress, a long accented sylla b le being a p p ro xim a te ly 1.Ö tim es as long as a long unaccented s y lla b le .[7 ] B u t an unstressed long sylla b le m ay ob tain w ith d u ra tio n as g re a t as o r g re a te r th a n a stressed sh o rt sylla b le ,[8 ] lim itin g the d istin ctio n between tw o such sylla b le s to tw o corre•

lates, p itch and stress. P honem ically, th e fe a tu re o f stress is re d u n d a n t since p itch alw a ys accompanies the stressed sylla b le . B u t p h o n e tica lly, stress fu lly coincides w ith o n ly one o f the tw o tones, the fa llin g one. In the ris in g accents, especially w ith th e s h o rt ris in g accent, the highest p o in t in the tone contour is u su a lly produced in th e adjacent post-accented s y l־

la b le .[9 ] Since the d u ra tio n values are a p p ro xim a te ly id e n tica l one m ig h t th in k th a t stress is actuaU y m ore im p o rta n t th a n its phonem ic redundancy w ould suggest. H ow ever, g re a te r in te n s ity — the fe ature m ost com m only associated w ith w ord stre ss — is often e xh ib ite d a t the beginning o f the post-accented sylla b le fo llo w in g ris in g tones.[ 10] T he fa llin g and ris in g accents, th en, are much m ore d iffe re n t th an th e ir co n tra stive tones alone.

One reason S erbo-C roatian has often been dism issed as a tone language is because i t

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The system consists of only binary oppositions. Thus posited, the assignment of rising and

T here are cases in S-С w here the ve ry disyllabic n a tu re o f th e d is trib u tio n o f tone is

In S-С prosody, then, the com plexity o f features, the num ber o f d iffe re n t co n fig u ra tio n s, and the a ll b u t indecipherable differences in phonetic re a liza tio n c le a rly exceed th a t o f R ussian. Accent, a nebulous concept in any te rm s, a tta in s an even g re a te r degree o f v a ria tio n th a n in m ost languages due to the increased num ber o f va ria b le s. I t is no w onder th a t discussione o f accent m u st invo lve g re a t precision even fo r sim ple descrip- tio n ; and fo r generalizing fo r o th e r purposes such as describing verse language, the situ - a tio n is even m ore com plex.

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4 ,2 V ers ific a tio n in S -C

T he d iv e rs ity o f ve rsifica tio n system s made available in the phonology o f S-С demon- s tra te s both the w e a lth and the re la tiv e prom inence o f the prosodic features in th e phonol- ogy o f the language system . The phonology o f the standard canonized novostokavian dia- lect suffices to su p p o rt a t least fo u r m ąjor types o f ve rsifica tio n : w ith its o n ly p a rtia lly re s tric te d stress d is trib u tio n , i t could fo rm accented and syllabo-accented fo rm s; w ith its vocalic q u a n tity in both accented and post-accented positions it could allow q u a n tita tiv e verse; and there is no re s tric tio n , o f course* fo r fo rm in g syllab ic verse. A t lea st one sehol- a r, I. S lam nig, m entions tw o o th e r types o f S-С verse: “besjedovni (verbalni) stih: ^{njem u} je osnovna fonetska rije c (akcenatska cjelina, p ra va ili neprava riječ), jed na k ili približno je d n a k brój fo netskih rije ci u stih u . T aj p rin cip čest je u suvrem enom p je s n is tv u ...” [17]and 9stih skupina rijeci (recenicnih jedinica, s in ta g m a tič k i s tih )* D jelovi recenice nisu samo sm islene, već i zvukovne jedinice, sto u nasem je ziku vidim o po nacinu sm ještanja e n k liti- ka. Z vukovna n a ra v djelova recenice, njihov medu&obni odnoś т о г е p o služiti kao osnova s tih a .” [1 8 ] The fir s t typ e seems to correspond to isocolonic verse[19] according to the exam ple given la te r in the te x t:[2 0 ]

N is u t i ubijena da nisu t i иЬцепа nisu t i ubijena

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da ž iva m i sta odvedena živa sta odvedena

к саги P ąjazitu na p o rtu .

T he second typ e w ould seem to be the bugarstica> again, as according to the exam ple:

O d ilja m se, m oja v ilo | Bog da nam bude и družbu.

plac i suze i moju tuzbu | da bi znała, m oja vilo ! O diljam se, a ne vije m | kom u osta vlja m ličce bilo.

Pokle t i je služba m ila ļ koju t i sam je činio, a sad sam te ucvilio | ostaj zbogom, m oja vilo !

O diljam se, a ne vije m | kom u osta vlja m ličce b ilo .[2 1 ]

T he in te re s tin g aspect o f th is discussion is not the inclusion o f special old form s o f verse in th e general description, b u t the claim th a t these types o f verse are being used by modem poets. E ith e r th is scholar is over-generalizing, o r the c u rre n t need fo r descriptive term s adequate fo r m odem form s o f verse has encouraged him to extend these older ones to m odem use.

Seen h is to ric a lly , S-С poets took advantage o f th e ir rich prosodic idiosyncracy. They w ro te q u a n tita tiv e verse along the p a tte rn s o f A n cie n t G reek, using long syllables in ictus and d isre g a rd in g w ord accent. T ra d itio n a lly , they w ro te s ylla b ic verse v e ry m uch in accor- dance w ith the principles established in fo lk verse w ith fixed caesura and standard num - bers o f syllab le s in groups. A nd they w ro te syllabo-accented verse based on G erm an pat- te rn s established b y S aran and G ottschall and introduced in Y u g oslavia by T m s k i.[2 2 ] Q u a n tita tiv e verse never re a lly flourished in S-С. though; pure stre ss verse in the G er- m anic s ty le was never attem pted, perhaps because o f the stro n g tra d itio n o f syllabic fo rm s. Syllabo-accented verse, the m a jor focus o f th is ch a p te r, enjoyed some degree o f success in the nineteenth and e a rly tw e n tie th centuries and is s till em ployed, although p ri- m a rily fo r tra n s la tio n s .[2 3 ] B u t tonal verse was never conceived, except in so fa r as tone is

a p a rt o f accent. In o th e r w ords, there was never a ru le re garding the type o f tone th a t could occur in a verse lin e o f a p a rtic u la r kind . Thus i t seems th a t the tone features are n o t s a lie n t enough by them selves to support a system o f ve rsifica tio n .

Syllabo-accented verse w as adopted o n ly in the nineteenth ce n tu ry, adapted fro m a rtis tic verse w hich followed sylla b ic p rin cip le s.[2 4 ] The phonology o f S-С is s u ffic ie n tly com plex to m ake i t an u n lik e ly candidate in some w ays fo r using the syllabo-accented sys*

te m , b u t poets s till successfully composed th e ir verses w ith in the carefu l boundaries o f stre ss d is trib u tio n in re g u la r a lte rn a tio n . H ow ever, as K o šu tic rem arks:

D rugo je u Rusa. U n jih je cista tonska m e trik a , od Lom onosova, pa, tako reći, do nasih dana... A и naših pesnika sto se dalje islo od B ra n ka [R adičevica], odstupanja su postojala p ra viio , a Čistota m e tra , и celim pes- m am a — slucąjni izu ze ta k.[2 5 ]

Since verse lines v a ry in th e ir d is trib u tio n o f stressed syllab le s, it m ay not be su rp risin g th a t there is disagreem ent on such fundam ental issues as the existence o f “ fo o t" in m e tric verse. F. Adelsberger claim s th a t M atos “ th ir ty years a fte r T rn s k i's tre a tise m easures rh y th m by the ru les w hich T rn s k i set down, but using stops."[2 6 ] The stop is accepted a t le a s t in th e o ry by m a n y ,[2 7 ]b u t categorically dism issed by others: “ In C ro a tia n stops are n o t needed, and to depict them w ith the m a rk o f len gth and shortness is com pletely a b su rd .” [2 8 ]

A n o th e r disagreem ent centers on w hether only stressed syllables can fu lfill ictus or w h e th e r long syllables m ay su b stitu te . I t w ould be te m p tin g to resolve the problem by sa yin g th a t e ith e r type o f syllab le m ay realize ictus. A n d th e re is the convention o f length s u b s titu tin g fo r stress in w ords w here vocalic length is rem oved fro m the accented syllab le b y a t lea st one in te rve n in g syllab le . H ow ever, m any s itu a tio n s involve long syllables adja- ce n t to accented ones, and there is alw ays a question in respect to fu lfillin g ictus through vocalic length. R. D m itrije v ic , fo r exam ple, explains how in m ore th an one position a long sylla b le “ acquires" the value o f an accented sylla b le [2 9 ] even when adjacent to an accent.

R. K o su tić exp lains the re la tio n between length and stress in re a lizin g ictus

A ko se akcenat svuda podudara s m etrom , a и stih u im a i koja dužina, akcenat, pojačan za m ahom ritm a , istaći se iznad nje i samo on biće nosilac m e tra . D užina će iz g u b iti и ja č in i i tra ja n ju (na m estim a, gde se ona inače gubi, može se i sasvim re duko vati) pa neće m etru sm e ta ti. P reko nje će brzopreći kao sto se p re la zi preko nenaglašenih slogova.

u tro he ju : Rãdost d oáe, pa i prod&

и jam bu: N a njênu licu | ràdœ t beie sjâla

...opet и ja m b u : RãdÕst jo j skide sum orinu s lic a [30]

Long vowels adjacent to accent are n o t usu ally good candidates fo r fu lfillin g ictu s since the re la tiv e prom inence dim in ish e s in th is position. There is, however, a notable exception to th is ru le , w h ich is discussed below.