An Italian cellist’s journey into Serbian Language — Lesson 9

Accents (Part 2) – Proclitic & Enclitic words

In the Serbian language, there are two kinds of words that do not have an accent on their own; instead, they rest on the word that comes before or after them. This is, once more, a complex topic, mostly because of how confusing it is to classify these particles.

Introduction

Words that lean on the word coming before them, and thus appearing after the accented word, are called enclitic.

Words that lean on the word coming after them, and thus appearing before the accented word, are called proclitic.

To help memorise this difference, I imagine “pro” as something acting in favour of something else, and thus pointing forward. The sound of the word “enclitic” reminds me of the word “inclinato” (sloping, slanted) in Italian, and it makes me think of something falling back. You can use my mental images or make some up yourself, the important is that you feel confident about the difference.

Enclitics are further subdivided as pronominal and verbal.

Enclitics

1. Pronominal ones are:
   
   1. Short forms of personal pronouns in the genitive, dative, and accusative cases — e.g., ме, те, га (mi, te, lo – me, you, him)
   2. The reflexive pronoun се (si – ‘self’)
2. Verbal ones are:
   
   1. Short forms of the verb бити (to be – essere) in its present and aorist tenses — e.g., сам, си, је, смо, сте, су (sono, sei, è, siamo, siete, sono – am, are, is, are, are, are)
   2. Short forms of the verb хтети (to want – volere) — e.g., ћу, ћеш, ће, … (voglio, vuoi, vuole, … — want, …)

All these come AFTER the accented word.

Position

Enclitics always occupy the second place of a sentence. For example:

• Ја САМ мусичар (sono un musicista – I am a musician)
• Биолончелистa САМ (sono un violoncellista – I am a cellist)
• Мој виолончело ЈЕ стар (il mio violoncello è vecchio – My cello is old)

In this last sentence it may appear that the verbal enclitic је is in 3rd place, but actually, мој+виолончело constitutes a single logical unity.

The only enclitic that can appear at the beginning of the phrase is је, the abbreviated form of the verb бити in the 3rd person singular, when used in its interrogative form:

• Је ли он вежбао? (Ha studiato? — Did he practice?)

In a single proposition, we can have more than one enclitic. Their order follows two rules:

1. The interrogative particle ли always comes before the others — e.g., Јеси ли ми га донела? (Me l’hai portato? — Did you bring it to me?). Literally, the order would be: Have you (јеси ли) + to me (ми) + it (га) + brought (донела)?
2. Enclitics can appear after conjunctions (which are proclitics and should in theory go after) unless these are а and е. — e.g., Она је спавала ДОК ЈЕ он радио (Lei dormiva mentre lui lavorava – She slept while he was working).

Some more positioning rules:

1. Verbal enclitics always come before pronominal ones, except for је, which always goes last — e.g., Ја ЋУ ТИ поклонити ружу (Ti regalerò una rosa – I will give you a rose).
2. Pronominal enclitics in the dative case come before those in the genitive and accusative case — e.g., Пишем писмо Марији. Пишем ЈОЈ ГА. (Scrivo una lettera a Maria. Gliela scrivo – I am writing a letter to Maria. I am writing it to her). This is quite helpful to clarify this ordering rule: in the first sentence we have the verb, followed by the accusative and then the dative. In the second sentence, which means exactly the same thing logically, we have the verb, followed by two pronominal enclitics, one in the dative (thus coming before) and one in the accusative (thus coming after).
3. The reflexive pronoun се comes after all others — e.g., Свиђа ЛИ ТИ СЕ представа? (Ti piace lo spettacolo? — Do you like the show?

There are a few more rules, but they are so complicated that it is much easier to just learn a few sentences by heart and try to understand how they work.

Proclitics

They come in the following forms:

1. All monosyllabic prepositions — e.g., код, из, до (presso, da/di (luogo), fino a – next to, from, up to)
2. All conjunctions — e.g., а, ни, и (e, neanche, anche — and, not even, also)
3. The particles не and да (no / yes – no / sì)

In two cases, the accent can be moved onto the proclitic:

1. In front of the instrumental case of the personal pronoun ја (io – I): са мном (con me – with me). The a in са has a descending short accent ȁ, making this couplet sound like a single word.
2. In the negative form of verbs with descending accent: не знам (non lo so – I don’t know) or не смем (non posso – I can’t).

Position

Proclitics do not have special rules on positioning.

Bottom Line

That’s it for today, I hope you didn’t find this too boring, besides it being very complex!

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See you (hopefully soon) for another lesson.