The Place of the Accent in Russian and in the Croatian “Čakavian” Variant (“Čakavian” Usage on the Middle Dalmatian Islands)

Abstract

We investigated the place of the Russian and Čakavian accent in 407 pairs of nouns, and 451 pairs of verbs. The targeted material shows that 86,7% of the nouns have the accent in the same place in the N. sg. 89% of the verbs have the accent in the same place in the infinitive. We see a significant correspondence in the position of the accent. 60,7% of the nouns, which in N. sg. have the same place of the accent, retain the same place in other forms of singular and plural, while only 22% of the targeted verbs retain the same place as in the infinitive (we investigated the forms of the present tens, the past tense and the imperative). In both systems accent can change its place in other forms. Therefore it is possible for both systems to undergo the same changes (5% of the nouns, 6,2% of the verbs). In other cases we found a total discrepancy in the position of the accent (8 % of the nouns, 12,6% of the verbs), or a partial correspondence (21% of the nouns, 43% of the verbs). The accent changes place mostly in the present, while it mostly keeps the same place as in the infinitive in participle (past tense) and imperative . The movement of the accent in feminine form of the past tense, which can be found in monosyllabic verbs in russian, cannot be found in čakavian.