Croatian grammar #014
Sibilarization and palatalization
When I have been checking my declination of nouns using the standard endings (See pages in Grammar reference section/Nouns) I have occasionally encountered some strange deviations – at least what I thought were deviations – but which I now realise have a formal linguistic pattern.
There are two sorts of these ‘deviations’, called sibilarization and palatalization. I don’t know why these have come into play, but I think it is to do with how easily words can be expressed.
In my case, I am not necessarily able to create the correct word for a noun that I am not familiar with, but I can appreciate the origin of an apparently strange word when I see or hear it.
It seems that the letters ‘i’ and ‘e’ are a bit fussy about which letters come immediately before them. They particularly don’t like k, g, and h as neighbours. And so .......
There are two sorts of these ‘deviations’, called sibilarization and palatalization. I don’t know why these have come into play, but I think it is to do with how easily words can be expressed.
In my case, I am not necessarily able to create the correct word for a noun that I am not familiar with, but I can appreciate the origin of an apparently strange word when I see or hear it.
It seems that the letters ‘i’ and ‘e’ are a bit fussy about which letters come immediately before them. They particularly don’t like k, g, and h as neighbours. And so .......
Sibilarizacija (Sibilarization)
When you decline a noun using the standard endings, watch out if you get k, g, or h in front of an i. In front of i, k changes to c, g changes to z, and h changes to s.
I prefer to think of these changes as -ki → -ci, -gi → -zi, -hi → -si
Some examples (obtained by trolling the web) ……
When you decline a noun using the standard endings, watch out if you get k, g, or h in front of an i. In front of i, k changes to c, g changes to z, and h changes to s.
I prefer to think of these changes as -ki → -ci, -gi → -zi, -hi → -si
Some examples (obtained by trolling the web) ……
Some plural masculine nouns in the nominative case:
Some plural masculine nouns in dative, locative, and instrumental cases:
Some singular feminine nouns in dative and locative cases:
- junak (hero): junaci, rather than junaki.
- krčag (jug, pitcher): krčazi, rather than krčagi.
- propuh (draft, breeze): propusi, rather than propuhi.
Some plural masculine nouns in dative, locative, and instrumental cases:
- junak: junacima, rather than junakima.
- krčag: krčazima, rather than krčagima.
Some singular feminine nouns in dative and locative cases:
- majka (mother): majci, rather than majki.
- rijeka (river): rijeci, rather than rijeki.
- noga (foot): nozi, rather than nogi.
- knjiga (book) knjizi, rather than knjigi.
- snaha (daughter-in-law): snasi, rather than snahi.
There are deviations from the ‘deviation’. Sibilarization is not applied to some words that contain -ki, -gi, or -hi. For a listing of some of these, go to Wikipedia/Sibilarizacija and see the section entitled ‘Odstupanja od sibiliarizacije’.
Palatalizacija (Palatalization)
In situations where k, g, or h would appear in front of an e in a word, often, but not always ….
-ke → -če, -ge → -že, -he → -še
For example …
Some singular masculine nouns in vocative case:
In situations where k, g, or h would appear in front of an e in a word, often, but not always ….
-ke → -če, -ge → -že, -he → -še
For example …
Some singular masculine nouns in vocative case:
- seljak (villager): seljače, rather than seljake.
- Bog (God): bože, rather than boge.
- duh (ghost, spirit): duše, rather than duhe.
To be aware of some instances where palatalization is not applied to words that contain -ke, -ge, or -he, go to Wikipedia/Palatalizacija and see the section entitled ‘Odstupanja od palatalizacije’.
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