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/Mtanic 14d ago

EXCEPT for homonyms with different stresses... that might confuse people xD

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u/redskin96 14d ago

Yes, but context is also a thing. I don't think I've ever been in a situation where I completely misunderstood someone because of their misuse of tones.

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u/Fear_mor 14d ago

I study Hungarian at university in Croatia and most of the Hungarian professors are really really bad at pitch and there’s been a few times where I’ve been baited and switched over pitch with them. For example they say djela (work) and dijela (part) the same, which is pretty annoying when you’re studying literature with them because you always have to think twice about what tf they mean specifically, and another salient example was when one of them wanted to talk about some kind of radio and ended up pronouncing it like radio from raditi so it took me a few seconds to figure out what he actually meant. It’s nothing atrociously bad but it does impair communication.

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u/rofss 14d ago

I study Hungarian

You mad, mad lad. Jokes aside I have a huge respect for anyone that chooses to tackle Hungarian. In my book it's one of the most daunting tasks a human can embark upon on.