The Croatian alphabet contains 30 letters. Each of these has a fairly distinctive sound. I'm going to be writing this with an American English pronunciation guide. In Croatian, the
Latin alphabet is used, with a few letter variations. In some parts of Bosnia and most of Serbia, Cyrillic script is used, using nearly the same Cyrillic alphabet as is found in Russian.
Vowels: The vowels are pronounced like those in Spanish or Japanese, i.e.
ah - eh - ee - oh - oo. Y does not exist in Croatian except for in foreign words.
Consonants: The consonants missing from Croatian are Q, W, & X.
Emphasis in each Croatian word is pronounced on
nearly always the first or second syllable. In words that have three or more syllables, this rule still applies, but the emphasis can land on a later syllable. However, in Croatian words,
the emphasis is never placed on the last syllable. Alphabet |
 Continued |
(Please excuse the poor resolution; I had to take a screenshot of a Word document)Certain letter combinations do create a somewhat newer sound - for example, a vowel, such as "a" or "e" with a "j" creates an "ai" (for "aj") or "ey" (for "ej") sound. Also, the differences between the "ch" and "j" sounds are minute and hard to differentiate for a beginning ear, but knowing there's a difference is still very important.
Try practicing rolling your r's if you're currently unable, as well as practicing any other unfamiliar sounds. They take a while to get the hang of, but it just takes practice. Try saying these words:
Haljina - Dress
Riba - Fish
Polje - Field
Njezin - Her
Živjeli! - Cheers!
For learning
Croatian | Category
Uncategorized | Level
Unspecified |
Second language
English | Created
Jul 30, 2008 16:50 | Views
3459 |
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