Lesson 8. A word without a vowel: syllabic r

Last time we said that Serbian has five vowels: a, e, i, o, u. Today, something surprising: a word can have no vowel at all. And yet it still has a syllable.

The letter r as a syllable

Look at these Serbian words:

They have no vowel letters. Only consonants. But Serbs pronounce such words easily, because the letter r can sound like a syllable on its own — as if it were a little vowel.

When r stands between consonants, or at the start of a word before a consonant, it becomes syllabic. That means: by itself it forms a syllable.

How to pronounce it

Hold the r a bit longer than usual, as if you are rolling it a little. You get something between an English “r” and a short “uh” — but without a real vowel.

• vrh — roughly a long “r” with “v” in front and “h” after.
• prst — same idea: long “r” between “p” and “st”.
• trg — long “r” between “t” and “g”.
• crn (black) — long “r” between “c” and “n”.

More examples

The word srce has two syllables: sr-ce. The first syllable is the syllabic r. The word prvi has two syllables: pr-vi.

Similar words in other Slavic languages

Notice that many of these words are related to Russian (and often to English too):

• vrh — Russian “верх” (top); English “vertex” comes from the same root.
• prst — Russian “перст” (an old word for “finger”).
• srce — Russian “сердце” (heart).
• crn — Russian “чёрный” (black).
• prvi — Russian “первый” (first).

Serbs simply skip the vowel where Russian has one.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Read the words, stretching the r: vrh, prst, trg, crn, brz.

Show answer

A long “r” inside each word. The key thing: do not add “uh” or “eh” next to the r.

Exercise 2

How many syllables does srce have? Name them.

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Two syllables: sr and ce. The first one is the syllabic r.

Exercise 3

Write in Cyrillic: vrh, prst, srce, prvi.

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врх, прст, срце, први.

Exercise 4

The Serbian word crven means “red”. How many vowel letters does it have? How many syllables?

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One vowel (e). But it has two syllables: cr-ven. The first one is the syllabic r.

Exercise 5

Which of these Russian words would become Serbian vrh? a) “врач” (doctor); b) “верх” (top); c) “враг” (enemy)?

Show answer

b) “верх”. Serbs simply drop the “е”, and what’s left is vrh.

Lesson vocabulary

vrh (врх)

— top, peak

prst (прст)

— finger

trg (трг)

— square (plaza)

srce (срце)

— heart

crn (црн)

— black

crven (црвен)

— red

prvi (први)

— first

brz (брз)

— fast, quick