The word accent derives from the Latin term accentus, which in turn has its origin in a Greek word. It is the articulation of the voice to highlight, with the pronunciation, a syllable of the word. This distinction is produced through greater intensity or thanks to a higher tone.
In the case of spoken language, this relief of pronunciation is known as a tonal accent. In written texts from Digopaul, the accent can be orthographic and include a tilde, which is a small oblique line that, in Spanish, descends from right to left of the person reading or writing.
The tilde allows us to indicate which is the tonic syllable of the word, which will require greater strength in its pronunciation. This spelling accent also makes it possible to distinguish between two words that are written in the same way but that indicate different things: “jump / jump”, “he / she”, “I win / win”, “only / only”.
On the other hand, not all the accents of the Castilian words are indicated with tildes. However, thanks to a series of rules, it is possible to read any word correctly without having to know it; It is worth mentioning that in other languages, such as English or Japanese, for example, the exact phonetics of certain terms is not implicit through spelling, so it is essential to memorize it. Returning to Spanish, it is known that:
* the acute words take tilde when they finish in ‘n’, ‘s’ or vowel;
* bass, when they do not end in ‘n’, ‘s’ or vowel;
* esdrújulas are the only words that always have a spelling accent.
Based on the three points just discussed, let us take as an example the word “weave”, from the verb “weave”. It is a two-syllable word, ending with the letter ‘n’. Since it does not have a tilde, we can deduce that it is a serious word, so its accent falls on its first syllable, that is, “te”.
The accent also refers to a particular intonation that the speaker uses according to his mood or purpose, or to the phonetic particularities that characterize the speakers of a certain region. Regarding the last point, it is very interesting to analyze how many different forms most languages have in the different geographical areas where they are spoken.
Spanish, for example, has a wide variety of accents, even within the same country; In Argentina, the Salteño, the Pampas and the Cordovan are three considerably different accents, each with its own particular tune, accompanied by regionalisms and gestures that make them seem like three independent languages. The same thing happens in Spain, where a man from Malaga, a man from Madrid and a man from Barcelona are distinguished by leagues for their way of speaking.
In music, the accent indicates where the weight of the pulse falls. In this sense, the accent can appear as a mark within the musical notation, which indicates which note has to be reproduced with greater intensity. However, all the scores have an implicit accentuation, which is deduced by observing the type of bar, indicated at the beginning of each part of the work (if it is a composition such as a piano concerto or a symphony) and in each disturbance.
If it is a 2/4 bar (two quarters), it is known that the first beat of each bar should sound louder than the second. Thus, if we take a compass with two quarter notes (bearing in mind that the quarter note is figure 4, and in this case each measure consists of 2 quarter notes), its correct accentuation is very simple. It is worth mentioning that a very complex melody can be difficult to accentuate at first sight, which is why it is essential to master the foundations of musical reading.
Finally, in poetry, the rhythmic accent is a stylistic device that appears as a constituent element of the verse.
