Local names and words appear the way they would be written in Croatian language. Here are a few pronunciation guidelines for English speakers.

Vowels should be pronounced flatly, without inflection, and should sound roughly like this:

a = aah; e = eh; i = ee; o = oh; u = oo

Speak the word livada as LEE-vah-dah; sunce as SOON-tseh; and uhvatiti as ooh-HVAH-tee-tee.

The letter c, as in sunce, always sounds like ts.

The letter h is always spoken, as illustrated in uhvatiti above (if you have trouble speaking a v right after an h, think of the h as followed by an a—this ah serves as a vowel of sorts, allowing you to prepare for the next consonant). Practice saying the Croatian word hvala (thank you) by exhaling on the h and quickly switching to the v sound.

Diacriticals (letters with accent symbols, such as č, š, and ž) should be pronounced as the corresponding consonant followed by an h; e.g., ch, sh, and zh (čekam = CHEH-kahm; šuma = SHOO-mah; želim = ZHEH-lihm).

The letter ć is a softer version of č—whereas č is pronounced as tsch, ć should sound more like ty. Note that č and ć are pronounced differently in the coastal areas of the Northern Adriatic (which include Kvarner), whereas both are spoken as tsch in most of continental Croatia. 

The letter đ is pronounced dzh or tzh, and dž is pronounced just like đ, perhaps with a slightly greater emphasis on the zh sound. In uppercase, đ is written Đ.
Think of the letter j as a y: pronounce jako YAH-koh; Rijeka as Ree-YEH-kah.

Finally, r is always rolled. If followed by a consonant, it is treated as a vowel. For example, the word prvo is pronounced PRR-voh. If you have trouble pronouncing rs, mentally add an ah ahead of them; e.g. PAHR-voh or PAHR-voh.

There is no rule for where to place an emphasis, and accents are not indicated in written Croatian. Compared to standard Croatian, accents in Kvarner dialects tend to trail by one syllable; e.g. one says kuPIT instead of KUpiti (to buy), suSED instead of SUSjed (neighbor), and učiNIT instead of uČIniti (to do).

In the original edition of this book, the author used standard Croatian but included many words and expressions in local dialects that even most Croats from other areas of the country would not understand. Several sections and most interviews were written entirely in dialect. It is unfortunate that the flavor, cultural connotations, and subtle variations of regional dialects are lost in translation, but you can still get the idea of the mindset, wit, and attitudes that define the culture of Kvarner. Wherever dialect plays an important role in conveying an idea, that fact is mentioned and explained. Those who have been exposed to Croatian will appreciate that original names, key terms, and entire poems are given in both languages.

To a speaker of Croatian from continental Croatia, dialects of Kvarner sound warm, unassuming, and friendly. The difference in the pronunciation of the “hard č” (tsch) and “soft ć” (ty), characteristic of all Kvarner dialects, adds specific flavor to local speech. This, combined with a pronounced melodic quality of the vowels, reminiscent of inflections in Italian, gives the Kvarner dialects a special quality.

The dialect used in the area around Brseč—as well as through most of the Kvarner area, is Čakavian or Čakavica, named after the word ča (pronounced tscha), which means what. By contrast, standard Croatian uses Štokavica, in which the same word is što (pronounced shtoh), and the dialects in northern Croatia are Kajkavian, with the word kaj (pronounced khai).

Even though Mošćenička Draga is only seven kilometers (four miles) northeast of Čakavica-speaking Brseč, its older residents—Drazani, as they called themselves—used to speak the Cakavica dialect. They would pronounce ča (tscha—what) as ca (tsa); zač (zahtsch—why) as zac (zahts); koža (kohzha—skin) as koza (kohza, which, confusingly, also means goat); mreža (mrehzha—net) as mreza (mrehza); šal (shahl—scarf) as sal (sahl); čoban (chohbahn—sheepherder) as coban (tsohbahn); etc. Cakavica has disappeared from this area over the last thirty years; today almost all Dražani speak Čakavica.