Date of Award
Spring 6-14-2026
Document Type
Thesis (Undergraduate)
Department
Linguistics
First Advisor
Laura McPherson
Abstract
This thesis is a sociophonetic study investigating the surface realisation of the short-falling and short-rising pitch accents in different dialects of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language. In particular, it investigates the hypothesis of a merger-in-progress between these two pitch accent contours in Belgrade and surrounding areas by analysing phonetic data collected from 17 young speakers of various dialect areas.
The study shows several significant results. We find that the two short accents are, indeed, continuing on their merging trajectory, and most strongly in the Belgrade area. Unexpectedly, we find that they tend to merge in favour of the rising accent, contrary to most of the prior literature. We note that syllable structure is a much stronger predictor of this merger than anticipated, with underlying word type and prosodic position also playing key roles. Crucially, we find that different regions exhibit the pitch contrast in different ways, with the North relying more on pitch jump and the West more on peak alignment, and therefore present a more variationist view of the matter than in the prior literature.
Recommended Citation
Sotirov, Aleksa, "The Merger of Short Rising and Falling Pitch Accents in Serbo-Croatian: A socio-phonetic study" (2026). Linguistics Undergraduate Senior Theses. 1.
https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/linguistics_senior_theses/1
