Croatian

Note: in the representation of Croatian orthography shown below,

c' stands for c with an acute accent;
d' stands for a barred d;
c^ s^ z^ stand for c s z with a wedge accent (hacek).

SAMPA symbol  Orthography   Transcription    Gloss

Vowels. There are five vowels in Croatian. Additionally, r can function as a vowel.

i             sir           "sir <F>         cheese
e             pet           "pe:t <F>        five
a             sat           "sa:t <F>        watch
o             bol           "bo:l <F>        pain
u             put           "pu:t <F>        way
r	      prst	    "prst <F>        finger

Consonants. The Croatian consonant system comprises 17 obstruents and 7 sonorant phonemes.

p             pas           "pas <F>	     dog
b             bas           "bas <F>         base
t             tip           "ti:p <F>        type
d             dan           "da:n <F>        day
k             kap           "ka:p <F>        drop
g             gol           "go:l <F>        naked

ts            cura          "tsura <F>       girl
tS            c^ar          "tSa:r <F>       thrill
dZ            dz^ep         "dZep  <F>       pocket
tS'           noc'          "no:tS'<F>       night
dZ'           d'ak          "dZ'a:k <F>      pupil

f             fonetika      fo"ne-Rtika      phonetics
s             sat           "sa:t <F>        hour
z             zid           "zi:d <F>        wall
S             s^ef          "Se:f <F>        chief
Z             z^ena         "Zena <R>        woman
x             hod           "xo:d <F>        walking


m             most          "mo:st <F>       bridge
n             noga          "noga  <R>       leg
J             njiva         "Jiva  <F>       field
l             lud           "lu:d <F>        mad
L             ljut          "Lu:t <F>        bitter
r             ruka          "ru:ka <R>       hand

v\            vid           "v\i:d <F>       sight
j             ja            "ja: <F>         I

Conventions (Assimilation). Phonemes in contact can be assimilated and pronounced as allophonic variants. Some of these allophonic variants can be regarded as the neutral realizations of some other phoneme (for example, replacement of voiced obstruents by their voiceless counterparts and vice versa). Such cases are not exemplified here. We exemplify those allophones which are different from neutral realizations of Croatian phonemes.

//    []      Orthog.           Transcription   Gloss
   
f     v       s^ef bi 		"Se:vbi       	boss would 
ts    dz      zec bi  		"ze:dzbi      	rabbit would
h     G       dah bi  		"daGbi        	breath would
S     S'      mis^ c'e   	"miS'tS'e      	mouse will
Z     Z'      ruz^ d'ine 	"ru:Z'"dZ'ine 	Gina's lipstick
m     F       tramvaj 		"traFv\aj      	tram
n     N       banka   		"baNka        	bank

Stress and Accent. There are two word tones in Croatian: -F, -R. Accented vowels can be short or long. The intersection of tones and lengths in accented syllables results in four word accents. They are not shown in orthography.

 
long fall     pas      "pa:s  <F>         belt
short fall    pas      "pas   <F>         dog
long rise     ruka     "ru:ka <R>         hand
short rise    noga     "noga  <R>         leg

Unstressed syllables preceding the stressed one are always short while syllables following the unstressed one can be short or long.

short unstr.  noga     "noga <R>          leg
long unstr.   noga     "no:ga: <R>        legs (gen.)

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This page is maintained by J.C. Wells. It was created 1997 May 06 on the initiative of Juraj Bakran and Damir Horga.