What is "accent"

Accent \Ac*cent"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Accented; p. pr. & vb. n. Accenting.] [OF. accenter, F. accentuer.]

1. To express the accent of (either by the voice or by a mark); to utter or to mark with accent.

2. To mark emphatically; to emphasize.

Accent \Ac"cent`\, n. [F. accent, L. accentus; ad + cantus a singing, canere to sing. See Cant.]

1. A superior force of voice or of articulative effort upon some particular syllable of a word or a phrase, distinguishing it from the others.

   Note: Many English words have two accents, the primary and the secondary; the primary being uttered with a greater stress of voice than the secondary; as in as'pira"tion, where the chief stress is on the third syllable, and a slighter stress on the first. Some words, as an'tiap'o-plec"tic, in-com'pre-hen'si-bil"i-ty, have two secondary accents. See Guide to Pron., [th][th] 30-46.

2. A mark or character used in writing, and serving to regulate the pronunciation; esp.:

   1. a mark to indicate the nature and place of the spoken accent;

   2. a mark to indicate the quality of sound of the vowel marked; as, the French accents.

      Note: In the ancient Greek the acute accent (') meant a raised tone or pitch, the grave (`), the level tone or simply the negation of accent, the circumflex ( ~ or ^) a tone raised and then depressed. In works on elocution, the first is often used to denote the rising inflection of the voice; the second, the falling inflection; and the third (^), the compound or waving inflection. In dictionaries, spelling books, and the like, the acute accent is used to designate the syllable which receives the chief stress of voice.

3. Modulation of the voice in speaking; manner of speaking or pronouncing; peculiar or characteristic modification of the voice; tone; as, a foreign accent; a French or a German accent. ``Beguiled you in a plain accent.''
   --Shak. ``A perfect accent.''
   --Thackeray.

   The tender accent of a woman's cry.
   --Prior.

4. A word; a significant tone; (pl.) expressions in general; speech.

   Winds! on your wings to Heaven her accents bear, Such words as Heaven alone is fit to hear.
   --Dryden.

5. (Pros.) Stress laid on certain syllables of a verse.

6. (Mus.)

   1. A regularly recurring stress upon the tone to mark the beginning, and, more feebly, the third part of the measure.

   2. A special emphasis of a tone, even in the weaker part of the measure.

   3. The rhythmical accent, which marks phrases and sections of a period.

   4. The expressive emphasis and shading of a passage.
      --J. S. Dwight.

7. (Math.)

   1. A mark placed at the right hand of a letter, and a little above it, to distinguish magnitudes of a similar kind expressed by the same letter, but differing in value, as y', y[sec].

   2. (Trigon.) A mark at the right hand of a number, indicating minutes of a degree, seconds, etc.; as, 12'27[sec], i. e., twelve minutes twenty seven seconds.

   3. (Engin.) A mark used to denote feet and inches; as, 6' 10[sec] is six feet ten inches.

late 14c., "particular mode of pronunciation," from Middle French accent, from Old French acent (13c.), from Latin accentus "song added to speech," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + cantus "a singing," past participle of canere "to sing" (see chant (v.)). Loan-translation of Greek prosoidia, from pros- "to" + oide "song," which apparently described the pitch scheme in Greek verse. The decorating sense of "something that emphasizes or highlights" is from 1972.

"to pronounce with accent or stress," 1520s, from Middle French accenter, from Old French acenter, from acent (see accent (n.)). Related: Accented; accenting.

Etymology 1 n. 1 (context linguistics English) A higher-pitched or stronger articulation of a particular syllable of a word or phrase in order to distinguish it from the others or to emphasize it. 2 (context figuratively English) Emphasis or importance in general. 3 (context orthography English) A mark or character used in writing, in order to indicate the place of the spoken accent, or to indicate the nature or quality of the vowel marked. 4 (senseid en modulation of the voice) modulation of the voice in speaking; the manner of speaking or pronouncing; a peculiar or characteristic modification of the voice, expressing emotion; tone. 5 (context linguistics English) The distinctive manner of pronouncing a language associated with a particular region, social group, etc., whether of a native speaker or a foreign speaker; the phonetic and phonological aspects of a dialect. 6 A word; a significant tone or sound. 7 (context usually plural only English) Expressions in general; speech. 8 (context prosody poetry English) Stress laid on certain syllables of a verse. 9 (context music English) A regularly recurring stress upon the tone to mark the beginning, and, more feebly, the third part of the measure. 10 (context music English) A special emphasis of a tone, even in the weaker part of the measure. 11 (context music English) The rhythmical accent, which marks phrases and sections of a period. 12 (context music English) The expressive emphasis and shading of a passage. 13 (context music English) A mark used to represent specific stress on a note. 14 (context mathematics English) A mark placed at the right hand of a letter, and a little above it, to distinguish magnitudes of a similar kind expressed by the same letter, but differing in value, as '''y'''', '''y'''''. 15 (context geometry English) A mark at the right hand of a number, indicating minutes of a degree, seconds, etc., as in '''12' 27''''', meaning twelve minutes and twenty-seven seconds. 16 (context engineering English) A mark used to denote feet and inches, as in '''6' 10''''', meaning six feet ten inches. 17 Emphasis laid on a part of an artistic design or composition; an emphasized detail, in particular a detail in sharp contrast to its surroundings. 18 A very small gemstone set into a piece of jewellery. 19 A distinctive feature or quality. 20 (context archaic English) utterance. Etymology 2

vb. 1 (context transitive English) To express the accent of vocally; to utter with accent. 2 (context transitive English) To mark emphatically; to emphasize; to accentuate; to make prominent. 3 (context transitive English) To mark with written accents.

1. n. distinctive manner of oral expression; "he couldn't suppress his contemptuous accent"; "she had a very clear speech pattern" [syn: speech pattern]

2. special importance or significance; "the red light gave the central figure increased emphasis"; "the room was decorated in shades of gray with distinctive red accents" [syn: emphasis]

3. the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people; "the immigrants spoke an odd dialect of English"; "he has a strong German accent" [syn: dialect, idiom]

4. the relative prominence of a syllable or musical note (especially with regard to stress or pitch); "he put the stress on the wrong syllable" [syn: stress, emphasis]

5. a diacritical mark used to indicate stress or placed above a vowel to indicate a special pronunciation [syn: accent mark]

1. v. to stress, single out as important; "Dr. Jones emphasizes exercise in addition to a change in diet" [syn: stress, emphasize, emphasise, punctuate, accentuate]

2. put stress on; utter with an accent; "In Farsi, you accent the last syllable of each word" [syn: stress, accentuate]

Accent is a very high level interpreted programming language, published in 1990 by CaseWare, Inc. (acquired by Telelogic Synergy). Accent has native support for strings and tables. It is strongly typed and supports remote function calls.

Category:Parser generators

In poetry, accent refers to the stressed syllable of a polysyllabic word, or a monosyllabic word that receives stress because it belongs to an "open class" of words (noun, verb, adjective, adverb) or because of "contrastive" or "rhetorical" stress. In basic analysis of a poem by scansion, accents are represented with a slash ("/"). St. Edward's University: 1

Accessed December 28, 2007. There is generally one accent in each foot for examples

Be-'hold/her,'sin//gle'in/the 'field Yon 'sol-/i-'tar/-y 'high-/land 'lass! 'Reap-ing/and 'sing/-ing 'by/her-'self; 'Stop here/or 'gent-/ly 'pass. here 'mark is symbolizing the stress or accent mark

Accent may refer to:

In sociolinguistics, an accent ( or ) is a manner of pronunciation peculiar to a particular individual, location, or nation. An accent may be identified with the locality in which its speakers reside (a regional or geographical accent), the socio-economic status of its speakers, their ethnicity, their caste or social class (a social accent), or influence from their first language (a foreign accent).

Accents typically differ in quality of the voice, pronunciation and distinction of vowels and consonants, stress, and prosody. Although grammar, semantics, vocabulary, and other language characteristics often vary concurrently with accent, the word 'accent' may refer specifically to the differences in pronunciation, whereas the word " dialect" encompasses the broader set of linguistic differences. Often "accent" is a subset of "dialect".

In music, an accent is an emphasis placed on a particular note, either as a result of its context or specifically indicated by an accent mark. Accents contribute to the articulation and prosody of a performance of a musical phrase. Compared to surrounding notes:

• A dynamic accent or stress accent is an emphasis using louder sound, typically most pronounced on the attack of the sound.
• A tonic accent is an emphasis on notes by virtue of being higher in pitch as opposed to higher in volume.
• An agogic accent is an emphasis by virtue of being longer in duration.

Accents which do not correspond to the stressed beats of the prevailing meter are said to be syncopated.

Accent was a Belarusian heavy metal band from the city of Minsk. The band played an important role in the development of contemporary music in Belarus.

The fallacy of accent (also referred to as accentus, from its Latin denomination, and misleading accent) is a type of ambiguity that arises when the meaning of a sentence is changed by placing an unusual prosodic stress, or when, in a written passage, it is left unclear which word the emphasis was supposed to fall on.

Accent is the phonetic prominence given to a particular syllable in a word, or to a particular word within a phrase. When this prominence is produced through greater dynamic force, typically signaled by a combination of amplitude (volume), syllable or vowel length, full articulation of the vowel, and a non-distinctive change in pitch, the result is called stress accent, dynamic accent, or simply stress. When it is produced through pitch alone, it is called pitch accent (although this term is often used with a somewhat different meaning; see below). When it is produced through length alone, it is called quantitative accent. English has stress accent.

A prominent syllable or word is said to be accented or tonic; the latter term does not imply that it carries phonemic tone. Other syllables or words are said to be unaccented or atonic. Syllables are frequently said to be in pretonic or post-tonic position; certain phonological rules apply specifically to such positions. For instance, in American English, /t/ and /d/ are flapped in post-tonic position.

In some languages, accented syllables have the typical features of stress accent as listed above, except that the change in pitch on such syllables may be distinctive; that is, an accented syllable may carry more than one possible tone (and differences in tone sometimes distinguish words), whereas unaccented syllables do not carry tone. An example of this is Serbo-Croatian accent. The term pitch accent is frequently used to denote accent systems of this type (in spite of inconsistency with the definition of this term given above).