Iotation

Lesson opening

This is the first part of the lesson. The rest, the exercises and the reviews are in the app.

Iotation: a consonant and j merge into one sound

You already know what Serbian does to k, g, h: before the -e of address or of a verb they give the hushing č, ž, š (“First palatalisation”), before a case ending -i the hissing c, z, s (“Second palatalisation”). The third alternation is the richest: it touches almost every consonant and explains why mlad gives mlađi, why kupljen has an l that kupiti lacks, and why leaves are lišće. This is iotation, in Serbian jotovanje: one table of mergers, seven places where it applies.

Your mouth already knows the trick: said fast, did you becomes “didja”; many British speakers say tune as “choon”, and nature, soldier, pleasure hide older mergers of the same kind. English does it casually; Serbian did it long ago and made grammar of it. What you need is not the mechanism but the Serbian table of results.

The full table of mergers

Think of it in three groups. d, t, s, z, c, made with the tip of the tongue behind the teeth, turn into new sounds: d → đ, t → ć, s → š, z → ž, c → č. K, g, h give the same hushing sounds as in the first palatalisation: k → č, g → ž, h → š. L and n soften into lj and nj, while the lip consonants p b m v do not fuse with j at all: an l is slipped in between. R does not merge either.

1. The comparative

The suffix -ji from the lesson “Comparative” carries a j, and it recolours the end of the stem. Now these forms stop being exceptions:

Also tvrd → tvrđi (harder), dug → duži (longer), beo → belji (whiter), brz → brži (faster), crn → crnji (blacker). Note: in adjectives in -ak, -ok, -ek that ending drops first, and the last consonant of the root iotates: visok → viši (taller), blizak → bliži (closer), dubok → dublji (deeper), sladak → slađi (sweeter), dalek → dalji (farther). And remember: đ and ć are one letter each.

2. The passive participle in -en

The participle suffix (“Past passive participle”) was historically -jen, and its j fuses with the last consonant of the stem:

Also voziti → vožen (driven), baciti → bačen (thrown). Notice pustiti → pušten: in participles st usually gives št (likewise krstiti → kršten, baptised), while nouns and adjectives have šć (lišće, češći, mašću). Yet a participle can have šć too (očistiti → očišćen, cleaned), so check the rarer ones in a dictionary. After a vowel there is nothing for the j to fuse with, and it stays in writing: popiti → popijen (drunk up).

In the second example otvoriti → otvoren has no change: the stem ends in r. The full list of such cases comes at the end.

Cheat sheet

The cheat sheet — everything essential from the lesson on one page. In the app it opens at any time.

Iotation: consonant + j = one new sound

Rule: a j starting an ending or suffix fuses with the last consonant of the stem into one new sound. In Serbian: jotovanje.

The seven places

When it does NOT apply