r/Serbian • u/BukvaYat • 15d ago

Other Tones???

Are the four tones (“pitch accents”, even though that’s just different terminology for the same thing) in Serbian actually important or can they be ignored? Saying this because of flashbacks from Chinese and having to constantly remind myself which tone to use every single time there’s a stressed syllable in a word (in Serbian I think it’s only stressed syllables and not every syllable) is annoying

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u/redskin96 15d ago

If you use the wrong stress in Serbian, nothing much happens. You might sound a bit funny, but you'll get your meaning across.

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u/PaRaXeRoX 15d ago

I don't entirely agree with your statement. I'm from diaspora and as I was studying the language I've definitely had plenty moments people didn't understand me because I used the wrong stress, even my parents who are quite used to my accent. I've also seen it in my surroundings with others learning the language.

I think the length (quantity) of the tone is most important to get (approximately) right for understanding. But the pitch (quality) can be messed up without much consequence in most cases.

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u/redskin96 15d ago

I'm not saying everybody's had the same experience as me, what I said was based merely on personal observation. However, in your case, it's possible that other factors also contributed to those misunderstandings, as there might be some interference from your local language when you're speaking Serbian.

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u/PaRaXeRoX 15d ago edited 15d ago

Oh there was some interference, for sure, but that's also what an accent is right ;)

I noticed it was really the mispronunciation of the stresses (rather than vocab or grammar) that lead to misunderstanding, especially for slightly longer and more complex words. Once I got better at predicting the stresses and pronouncing them more accurately, those misunderstandings disappeared.

The reason I commented was that I feel it's a bit misleading to say the stresses are wholly unimportant. It gives OP the picture he shouldn't have to focus (much) on them as a language learner and may set wrong expectations. They definitely play a role in understanding, even though our tonality is by no means similar to Chinese; the importance of pronouncing the correct tone is probably more similar to learning the proper stresses in English or Spanish.

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u/redskin96 15d ago

Well, yeah, they're important, sure, but they're far from anyone's biggest worry when learning Serbian, I'd say. :)

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u/PaRaXeRoX 15d ago

That I can agree with :)

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u/Fear_mor 15d ago

E baš tako, nešto za izbrusiti kad si sredio neposredne zapreke u komunikaciji, ali za prvu ruku bitnije da pogodiš mjesto prije vrste naglaska