Talk:танбур

Diacritics

Why are there no diacritics in the entry title, but there are in the inflection line? 173.89.236.187 05:11, 2 August 2015 (UTC)

Because Serbo-Croatian has a pitch accent. The Shtokavian dialects allow two tones on stressed syllables, and have distinctive vowel length, and therefore distinguish four combinations of these, called pitch accent: short falling ⟨◌̏⟩, short rising ⟨◌̀⟩, long falling ⟨◌̑⟩, and long rising ⟨◌́⟩, plus macron (◌̄) to denote post-tonic lengths. The accents are not indicated in normal writing, but are shown in the inflection line. It’s the same way we show Latin long vowels in the inflection line, but not in the entry title; and the way we indicate Russian stress accent in the inflection line, but not in the entry title. —Stephen ^(Talk) 18:26, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

Thank you, that is clear. By tones, you mean that Serbo-Croatian is tonal, with high and low, like Yoruba? 173.89.236.187 23:47, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

Yes. —Stephen ^(Talk) 00:30, 5 August 2015 (UTC)