Some words are entered in the dictionary with a vowel in parentheses after them. This vowel occurs only before a zero ending, e.g. нљмец (е) 'German,' итальїнец (е) 'Italian.' In other inflected forms, this vowel does not occur, e.g. итальїнец — об итальїнце. This vowel may be (е), (о) or, in a handful of nouns, (и):
кђмень (е) о кђмне
потолћк (о) о потолкљ
копљйка (е) копљек (Gen. Plur.)