Syllabic r

Lesson opening

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Syllabic r: the vowel that isn't there

In “The five vowels” you met one exception: sometimes a syllable rests not on a vowel but on the consonant r, which takes the place a vowel normally holds. That is why prst, trg and Srbija, where an English eye finds no vowel at all, are easy to say out loud. This lesson covers the details: how to say it, how to tell it from an ordinary r, and how to keep English habits out.

Nothing to fear: English has vowel-less syllables too. The second half of button and bottle is just a humming n or l, and psst or shh has no vowel at all. Serbian gives that job to its r; just don’t prop it up with an extra “uh” or “e”.

How to say it

If you speak American English, you already say a syllabic r: in bird, her or the end of butter, the part spelt “ir” or “er” is really a drawn-out r with no separate vowel before it. Serbian prst has the shape of American pursed: one syllable whose middle is nothing but r. Only the r differs: the English r bunches or curls the tongue back, touching nothing; the Serbian r is the tongue tip tapping the ridge behind the upper teeth, as in Spanish or Scottish, and as a peak it is usually a short roll. If you speak British English, where the r of bird is silent, borrow the feeling of button instead: a consonant that hums on its own for a beat.

Don’t slip a vowel between the consonants, and don’t put one in front of the r: give the r itself a short roll and let it carry the syllable. The result is a short vibrating syllable, a little like a cat’s purr: “prrst”, “Srr-bi-ya” (phonetically [pr̩st], the little mark under the r showing that it carries the syllable).

Read the column aloud, slowly. Can you feel that prst is one syllable, not “pee-ar-es-tee” and not “puh-rist”? In Srbija the first syllable is “Sr”, one continuous rumble: not “Sir” and not “Ser”, whatever the English name Serbia suggests. And c is the “ts” of cats, so crn is “tsrrn”.

Syllabic r or vowel + r?

An r becomes syllabic only when there is nothing else to lean on. If a vowel stands next to it, the r is an ordinary consonant and the vowel holds the syllable:

Cheat sheet

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Syllabic r: the vowel that isn't there

Syllabic r (slogotvorno r) is an ordinary r that in some words does the job of a vowel: it is the peak of the syllable. It appears between consonants (prst), or at the start of a word before a consonant (rđa, “rust”), when no vowel is next to it. Spelt with a plain r, no special mark. Like a vowel, it can carry the stress.

How to say it

• American English already has it: the “ir/er” of bird, butter. prst has the shape of American pursed.
• British English: think of the humming n and l of button, bottle.
• The r itself is Serbian: tongue tip at the ridge behind the teeth, a short roll. No vowel before it or after it: “prrst”, “Srr-bi-ya”.

Words where r holds the syllable

Short words are one syllable: prst is not “puh-rist”. Longer ones start with the r-syllable: dr-vo, pr-vi, gr-lo, br-do, kr-pa, mr-tav; Srbija = Sr-bi-ja, three syllables.

Syllabic r or vowel + r?

Vowel beside the r: ordinary r (tra-va). No vowel: syllabic (trg, one syllable). vrba “willow” = vr-ba. Rare exception at a prefix: zarđati = za-r-đa-ti.

Relatives spell the vowel

prst ~ Lithuanian pirštas; vrh ~ Polish wierzch; crn ~ Polish czarny; smrt ~ Latin mors; trg ~ Swedish torg; prvi ~ first; srce ~ heart. A hint to the meaning, never to the sound.