Sřckij

Overview
Sřckij /sr̩̂t͡skij/ (срцкиj азик sřckij azik) is a South Slavic language native to large parts of northern Serbia and north-eastern Croatia as well as in large diaspora communities in eastern Slovenia. It has no official status in any country, but is a recognized minority language in Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. It has a moderate system of inflection and is a partial pro-drop language with flexible word order, subject–verb–object being the default. Sřckij is based primarily on Serbo-Croatian and Russian, although it combines vocabulary derived from Macedonian, Czech and Slovak.

Pronouns, nouns, adjectives decline whereas verbs conjugate for person, tense, mood and aspect. As in other Slavic languages, the basic word order is subject–verb–object (SVO), but the declensions show sentence structure and so word order is not as important as in more analytic languages, such as English or Chinese. Deviations from the standard SVO order are stylistically marked and are used in different clauses, or to form the interrogative. For example,  on jeste piletini  (standard SVO),  jeste on piletini  (VSO), and '' jeste li on piletini? '' (interrogative [VSO]) are all correct. The VSO form is used in subordinate clauses and is always preceded by the word  že , i.e. možeš dělať to že hočeš ti.

Nouns have three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine and neuter) that correspond, to a certain extent, with the word ending. Accordingly, most nouns ending in: -a are feminine, -o and -e neuter, and a -consonant are masculine but with some irregulars. The grammatical gender of a noun affects the morphology of other parts of speech (adjectives, pronouns, and verbs) attached to it. Nouns are declined into five cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and locative, with distinct declensions for each case.

Verbs are divided into two broad classes according to their aspect, which can be either perfective or imperfective. There are six tenses, four of which (present, past, perfect, future I and II) are used in contemporary Sřckij, and one other (pluperfect) is used much less frequently. The pluperfect is generally limited to formal written language and literature. However, some nonstandard dialects (such as Svlediňa and Moraljevo) make considerable use of the pluperfect in vernacular usage.

* All Sřckij lexemes in this article are spelled in the Latin alphabet unless otherwise stated. See the Sřckij cyrillic script.

Consonants
2 Archaic in contempory Sřckij, but found in the Svlediňa, Moraljevo and Želnica dialects.

3 Can be syllabic /r̩/ in clusters such as sřcen.

4 /ɫ/ is develarised and palatalised to /lʲ/ when followed by j or ě.

* Fricatives Š, Č, Ž are palatalised when followed by j or ě, and change their place of articulation from post-alveolar to alveolo-palatal /ɕ/, /t͡ɕ/, /ʑ/ respectively.

Sibilantisation
The output of the Slavic palatalisation can be found in Sřckij grammar known as "sibilantisation" (sibilarizacija/сибиларизацијa). It results in the following alternations before /i/:


 * /k/ → /ts/
 * /ɡ/ → /z/
 * /x/ → /s/

This alternation is mainly featured in several characteristic cases:


 * in the imperative forms of verbs with the stem ending in /k/, /ɡ/ and one verb in /x/:
 * peškať ('to fish' present stem) pešk-; pešcij ('bake!' 2nd person singular imperative)
 * stvať ('to create' present stem) stvag-; stvazi ('create!' 2nd person singular imperative)
 * vrčiť ('to thresh' present stem) vrh-; vrsi ('thresh!' 2nd person singular imperative)
 * in masculine nominative plurals with the ending -i:
 * junak ('hero') → junaci
 * křčag ('jug') → křčazi
 * propuh ('draught [of air]') → propusi
 * in dative and locative plural of masculine nouns:
 * jùnāk ('hero') → juna c ima
 * krčag ('jug') → křča z am

Doublets are allowed in the following cases:


 * nominative plural of some masculine borrowings:
 * flamingo → flaminzi : flamingi
 * in nominative plural of masculine nouns with "fleeting a" and the ending -čak
 * mačak ('cat' masculine) → mački : mačci  zaplečak ('pretzel' masculine) → zaplečki : zaplečci

Palatalisation
The reflex of the Slavic first palatalization was retained in Sřckij as an alternation of


 * /k/ → /tʃ/
 * /ɡ/ → /ʒ/
 * /x/ → /ʃ/

before /e/ or /je/ in inflection, and sometimes before /j, i/ and some other segments in word formation. This alternation is featured in several characteristic cases:


 * in vocative singular of masculine nouns, where it is triggered by the ending -e:
 * junak ('hero') → junače,  vrag ('devil') → vraže,  gorih ('walnut') → goriše. It is, however, not caused by the same ending -e in accusative plural: junake, vrage, orahe.
 * in the present stem of certain irregular verbs before the endings in -e:
 * peškať ('to fish') – present stem pešk-; peščem ('I fish'), but pešku ('they fish') without palatalization before the 3rd person plural ending -u
 * stvať ('to create') – present stem stvag-; stvažem ('I create'), but stvagu ('they create') without palatalization before the 3rd person plural ending -u
 * močiť ('can') – present stem mog-; možeš ('you can'), but mogu ('I can'), without the palatalization before the archaic 1st person singular ending -u
 * in derivation of certain classes of nouns and verbs:
 * muka ('torment') → mučiť ('to torment'); zrak ('air') → zračiť ('to air'),  trag ('trace') → tražiti ('to seek')
 * sluga ('servant') → služiť ('to serve'),  objah ('discovery') → objašiť ('to discover')
 * before the "fleeting a", and before the endings -an, -ji and several others:
 * dah ('breath') → dašak ('puff'), Kartaga ('Carthage') → Kartažanin ('Carthaginian'), strah ('fear') → straš a n → strašnij ('fearsome')
 * a few words exhibit palatalization in which /ts/ and /z/ palatalize before vowels /e/ and /i/, creating /tʃ/ and /ʒ/. Such palatals have often been leveled out in various derived forms. For example:
 * stric ('uncle') – striče ('uncle!'), lovac ('hunter') – lovče ('hunter!'), zec ('hare') – zeče ('hare!'), ulica ('street') – uličica ('alley'), ptica ('bird') – ptičica ('small bird') – ptičirina ('big bird')

Fleeting-A
Fleeting-A nouns are masculine nouns where the stemmed-A in the final syllable nucleus before the final coda sound is removed, so-called because it ''seems as if the A is fleeting and has moved or dissapeared, in certain declensions. This almost always occurs in polysyllabic words, but also in a few monosyllabic words as well. The Fleeting-A is comparable to Serbo-Croatian nouns in similar circumstances.''

Pešak "fisherman"

Writing System
Sřckij is a digraphic language, meaning it is written in two distinct scripts. One of the Sřckij alphabets is based on the Serbian Cyrillic script (sřcka čirilica) and the other is based on the Czech Latin alphabet (which both contain 29 letters).

Sřckij Latin Alphabet
1Represents /ɟ/ when followed by j or ě in the Moraljevo and Svlediňa dialects.

2Represents /c/ when followed by j or ě in the Želnica and Moraljevo dialects.

3The letter Řř also exists but is not included in the Sřckij alphabet as it doesn't represent another phoneme. It shows that the stress on Rr is syllabic /r̩/ in clusters such as sřcen "sřckij person".

Pitch accent
The Sřckij language allows two tones on stressed syllables and can employ vowel length. short falling (ȇ), short rising (ě). Some dialects of Sřckij, like Želnica, lack pitch accent, instead using a stress based system, as well as differing from the standard language in stress placement. The accent can be on any syllable, but rarely on the last syllable.

Accent alternations are very frequent in both the quality and placement in the word. Different inflected forms of the same lexeme can exhibit all two accents: lonac /ˈlǒnats/ ('pot' nominative sg.), lonci /ˈlôːntsi/ (nominative plural).

All stressed syllables of Sřckij words are spoken with a high tone and that native speakers rely on the phonetic tone of the first post-tonic syllable to judge the pitch accent of any given word. If the high tone of the stressed syllable is carried over to the first post-tonic syllable, the accent is perceived as rising. If it is not, the accent is perceived as falling. Therefore, the narrow phonetic transcriptions of lǒnac lǒnca, lônci and lônaca are [ˈlo˦nats˦, ˈloːn˦tsa˦, ˈloːn˦tsi˨, ˈlo˦naˑ˨tsaˑ˨]. Although distinctions of pitch occur only in stressed syllables, unstressed vowels maintain a length distinction. Pretonic syllables are always short, but posttonic syllables may be either short or long (geminated). In standard language, the two accents are realized as follows: Examples of falling are as in nebo ('sky') /ˈnêbo/ or geminated as in pîvo ('beer') /ˈpîːvo/; rising as in maskara ('eye makeup') /ˈmǎskara/ or geminated as in čokolada ('chocolate') /t͡ʃokoˈlǎːda/. Unstressed long syllables can occur only after the accented syllable, as in djevojka ('girl') /ˈdјěvoːjka/ or dostaviňa ('delivery') /ˈdǒstaviɲa/. There can be more than one post-accent length in a word, notably in genitive plural of nouns: prôčka ('alleyway') → prôčākā ('alleways' gen. pl).

Notes


 * 1) Falling tone generally occurs in monosyllabic words or the first syllable of a word (b â ba ('old woman'), k û čika ('small house')).
 * 2) Rising tone generally occurs in any syllable of a word except the last one and so never occurs in monosyllabics (v ǒ da 'water', poč ě tak 'beginning')

Thus, monosyllabics generally have a falling tone, and polysyllabics generally have falling or rising tone on the first syllable and rising in all the other syllables but the last one. E.g. sřce /sr̩̂t͡se/ 'heart'.

Proclitics, clitics that latch on to a following word, on the other hand, may "steal" a falling tone (but not a rising tone) from the following word. The stolen accent is always short and may end up being either falling or rising on the proclitic (the negation proclitic ne).

Nouns
The nominal declension has six cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, locative, and vocative), in two numbers (singular and plural), and obeying grammatical gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter). Adjectives and pronouns have gender specific forms. Such forms, particularly noticeable in spelling, are also determined by whether the word ends in a "soft," palatalized, or "hard," unpalatalized consonant. The soft consonants are: j, lj/љ,  ň/њ.

There are four major declension patterns for normal nouns: masculine, feminine, and neuter as well as a "soft" declension pattern for masculine and feminine nouns. Below are examples of regular declension patterns.

Masculine
Most regular masculine nouns end in a consonant.

grob "grave" and nastaj "event"

Feminine
Most regular feminine nouns end in -a. A common irregular feminine ending is -osť.

Istina "truth" and smelosť "audacity"

Neuter
Most regular neuter nouns end in -o or -e.

Sredesto "medium/media" and ime "name"

Irregular neuter nouns
Kazalište "theatre" 1 Unintegrated form kazalistě for the Dative singular used in the Želnica dialect.

Irregular masculine nouns
Stric "paternal uncle" and ulinac "howler/one who howls" 1See Morphophonemic alternations.

Pronouns
* The reflexive pronoun does not exist in the nominative or vocative cases, although to convey the sense of an impersonal pronoun such as ‘one’, the clitic ‘se’ functions as a dummy pronoun in the same way as in Italian or Spanish (i.e. si parla or se habla). This is called the impersonal se or ‘bezličnij se’.

1 (Note: The words in the brackets represent shorter, unstressed versions of the pronouns that are very often used instead of longer, stressed versions. Those unstressed versions, however, only occur in genitive, accusative and dative.)

Possessive
First-person

Moj "my, mine",  naš  "our, ours"

Second-person

Tvoj "your, yours (sg., informal)",  vaš  "your, yours (pl., formal)"

Third-person singular

Jevo "his, (its)" jen "her, hers, (its)"  jevo "its" Third-person plural

Jiho "their, theirs"

Adjectives
Bělij (stem - běl) "white"

Verbs
Grammatical conjugation is subject to three persons in two numbers and three simple tenses (present, simple future, past), with periphrastic forms for the perfect, compound future and conditional, as well as the imperative and subjunctive. Like other Slavic languages, Sřckij distinguishes between perfective and imperfective aspects, but is unique in the Slavic family as perfective verbs are signified with the use of prefixes ONLY.

Indicative
The indicative has five tenses: present, past, perfect, simple and compound futures. The present, past and simple future are formed through inflection and prefixation, whilst the other tenses are periphrastic:


 * Perfect, uses the present tense of biť plus the perfect participle, e.g. sam došao (masc.), sam došla (fem.). The perfect participle is formed by adding -o (m.), -la (f.), -lo (n.), -li (pl.) to the verb minus the -ť ending.
 * Compound future uses the perfective future of biť, plus the verb in the imperfective.

Conjugation
There are three conjugation groups of verbs:


 * 1) 'a': almost all verbs that have this conjugation end in '-ati'.
 * 2) 'e': verbs ending in -eť, -uť and all irregular verbs (as in the example below). Verbs derived from other languages whose ending is -ovať, -evať become 'uje' when conjugated (telefonovať 'to telephone' is telefonujem, telefonuje etc.)
 * 3) 'i': almost all verbs ending in -jeť or -iť use this conjugation.