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