• • • Review: Word Stress (Accent)
I'm going to show you the stress pattern of some m-nouns. The word 'penultimate' means 'one before the last one'. Basically, in this pattern, whenever anything is added to the noun, the stress shifts to the right, and is mostly on the syllable before the last one. The stress is always rising, except in vocatives:
nom. sg. vòjnīk kòlāč hòtel gospòdār acc. sg. vojníka kòlāč hòtel gospodára dat./loc. sg. vojníku koláču hotèlu gospodáru other cases in sg. (same stress as dat. sg.) voc. sg. vojnīče kolāču hotelu gospodāru nom. pl. vojníci koláči hotèli gospodári other cases in pl. (same stress as nom. pl.) gen. pl. vojníkā koláčā hotélā gospodárā voc. pl. vojnīci kolāči hoteli gospodāri
In the Standard stress system, there's an opposition between nom. (and acc., if acc. = nom., that is, for mi nouns) and all other cases. Whenever anything is added to the noun, the stress moves one syllable right.
The gen. pl. follows the general rule (check the chapter on Stress).
Here's a clear difference between the Standard and the Zagreb stress system: in the Zagreb system, the last syllable is stressed in nom. and voc. sg. and exactly the same syllable is stressed in all other cases, regardless of endings added: always i in vojnik, a in kolač, a in gospodar, etc.
In the Standard system, there's a falling stress in both vocatives (as usual).
In the table above, I have shown that the noun hòtel behaves like others in this group. However, for many nouns that have a short last syllable (e.g. student), the Standard accent does not move at all through cases – therefore we have stùdenta, stùdenti, etc. in the Standard system, and student, studenta, studenti in the simplified (Zagreb) system. Actually, I'm not sure what the rule is.
Often used nouns in this group are (there's no need to indicate stress since it always follows the above pattern):
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alāt "tool" aparāt "device" aviōn "airplane" balkōn "balcony" balōn "baloon" bankār "banker" bazēn "pool" betōn "concrete" bombōn "hard candy" bunār "water well" bolesnīk "sick person" brojčanīk "dial, gauge" bukēt "bouquet" češnjāk "garlic" činovnīk "clerk" čuvār "guard, warden" dirigent "orchestra conductor" djëčāk "boy" dućān "shop" duhān "tobacco" ekrān "(TV, movie) screen" fakultēt "university dept." frizēr "hairdresser" filozof "philospher" fotograf "photographer" gospodār "master" gradīć "small town" herōj "hero" ināt "spite" inženjēr "engineer" jelovnīk "menu" jahāč "rider" junāk "hero" kafīć "(café) bar" kamiōn "truck" kartōn "cardboard" kapetān "captain" kirurg "surgeon" klavīr "piano" kolāč "cake" komād "piece" |
komentār "comment" kormilār "helmsman" kostīm "costume" kotāč "wheel" kovāč "(black)smith" kristāl "crystal" krojāč "tailor" krumpīr "potato" kurīr "courier, messenger" kvadrāt "square (in geometry)" lokāl "bar, parlour" mesār "butcher" mjenjāč "gearbox" mladīć "young man" mitraljēz "machine gun" modelār "modeller" mornār "sailor" nepušāč "non-smoker" nosāč "carrier" novčanīk "wallet" okvīr "frame" ormār "closet, wardrobe" pakēt "packet, package" papīr "paper" parfēm "perfume" parkēt "hardwood floor" pastīr "shepherd" penzionēr "pensioner" perēc "pretzel" perōn "railway platform" pjëšāk "pedestrian, pawn" pjëščanīk "sandbox" plakāt "poster, billboard" planinār "alpinist" pokrivāč "blanket, cover" pomoćnīk "aide, helper" portrēt "portrait" potrošāč "consumer" prekidāč "switch" pomagāč "helper, accessory" princīp "principle" |
prvāk "champion" portīr "doorkeeper" purān "turkey (male)" pušāč "smoker" račūn "bill, receipt" recept "recipe" redār "security guy" rezervāt "(nature) reserve" rezultāt "outcome, result" romān "novel" roštīlj "barbecue, grill" ručnīk "towel" rukāv "sleeve" sapūn "soap" seljāk "peasant" sitnīš "coins, small money" slatkīš "candy" skakāč "jumper, chess knight" stanovnīk "inhabitant, dweller" svjëdok "witness" šampōn "shampoo" šešīr "hat" špināt "spinach" tanjūr "plate" tajkūn "tycoon" terēn "terrain, ground" trajekt "ferry" trkāč "runner" utikāč "electric plug" vagōn "railway car" veterinār "vet" vidīk "sight, panorama" vladār "ruler" vodīč "guide" vojnīk "soldier" volān "steering wheel" vozāč "driver" vratār "gate keeper, doorman" zanāt "craft, trade" zidār "mason, bricklayer" zubār "dentist" |
The word svjëdok moves its accent (svjèdok, svjedòka, svjedòci) as expected from the described scheme.
Some place and country names also fall into this group:
Berlīn
Balkān
Brazīl
Japān
Londōn
Parīz "Paris"
Plomīn
Solīn
Trogīr
Names for some neighborhoods in Zagreb (including all that end on -čak) also follow this pattern:
Jarūn
Medveščāk
Pantovčāk
Names some for male inhabitants also belong here, including the native name for "Croat":
Englēz "Englishman"
Francūz "Frenchman"
Hrvāt "Croat (man)"
Kinēz "Chinese (man)"Mađār "Hungarian (man)"
Poljāk "Pole, Polish (man)"
Slovāk "Slovak (man)"
Talijān "Italian (man)"
It's obvious that there are many 'foreign' words in this group. Actually, many such nouns are very close to corresponding English words, so the translation is obvious:
admirāl
albūm
apetīt
atōm
automāt
balēt
dinamīt
festivāl
hokēj
hotel
ideāl
institūt
kalendār
kanāl
kapitāl
karnevāl
konduktēr
magnēt
margarīn
metāl
model
motēl
motōr
neurōn
oceān
planēt
problēm
reportēr
restorān
salōn
satelīt
servīs
signāl
sistēm
telefōn
tunēl
Foreign words that end on two consonants or -es (which is originally -ess, e.g. "process") have the short last consonant:
akcent
alarm
arhitekt
asfalt
asistent
diletant
fašist
infarkt
instrument
komunist
koncept
koncert
kongres
kontakt
kontinent
moment
objekt
patent
proces
produkt
projekt
refleks
student
subjekt
turist
This agrees with words such as dirigent, recept, trajekt... from the first list — they also have a short last syllable.
There are some words that end on -tēt in Croatian (from German ending -tät) that correspond to English words with -ty:
identitēt "identity"
elektricitēt "electricity"
kapacitēt "capacity"
raritēt "rarity"
univerzitēt "university"
Words that correspond to English "-logist" (e.g. "gynecologist") end on just -log in Croatian and have the last syllable short, e.g.:
arheolog
biolog
ginekolog
kardiolog
neurolog
Almost all such 'foreign' words with short end vowel have a rising stress fixed on the original penultimate syllable, e.g. arheòlog, arheòloga, arheòlozi,... pàtent, pàtenta, pàtenti, etc. in the Standard system.
Updated 2014-08-22 (v. 0.4)
3 comments:
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"In the table above, I have shown that the noun hòtel behaves like others in this group. However, for many nouns that have a short last syllable (e.g. student), the Standard accent does not move at all through cases – therefore we have stùdenta, stùdenti, etc. in the Standard system, and student, studenta, studenti in the simplified (Zagreb) system. Actually, I'm not sure what the rule is."
The rule is definitely that the accent doesn't move when the last syllable is short, so that "hotel" is simply an exception, I'd say. Another example is perhaps mùzej, muzèja.
I'm also wondering if there is perhaps an extra rule worthy of mentioning for loan words of this class ending in a vowel (grammatical information from hrvatski jezični portal):
bìrō (birȍ) m G biròa
bìdē (bidȇ) m 〈G bidèa, N mn bidèi, G bidéā
trìkō (trikȏ) m 〈G trikòa
fìlē (filȇ) m 〈G filèa
What I'm referring to is how the final vowel is shorted before (and ofc lengthened again in the Gpl)
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