I know that Japanese has it, there’s a difference between 紙 and 神 for example:

Technically: Latin Alphabet languages have something alike but not known as “pitch accent” more akin to word stress (think, “Cent” vs “Scent” or “Whole” vs “Hole”) as in is there a difference in ‘volume’ (like the tone of your voice upon pronouncing either word). Is there an emphasis on how a word could be understood based on how it’s said (in EN, FR, DE)?

I mean, do you know examples of words in (European) languages or ENG where something equivalent of “pitch accent” applies? Can you also tell the difference between something like “sent” / “cent” and “scent” even though those types of words are not relevant to another simply by hearing someone pronouncing it and the tone of their voice?

  • olenkoVD@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    1·
    11 hours ago

    Modern Greek actually uses a symbol called tonos (in English I have seen it be referred to as an acute accent) that goes over the vowels and denotes the vowel which is pronounced with more emphasis. The pitch does not change much, so I’m not sure if that’s what you’re talking about.

    It looks like this:

    • α, ά
    • ε, έ
    • η, ή
    • ι, ί
    • ο, ό
    • υ, ύ
    • ω, ώ

    Only words with more than one syllable take an acute accent (there are some exceptions to this). Its placement actually can have difference in the meaning of the word in some cases, for example:

    • Χαμόγελα (chamógela) translates to: Smiles. (Used as a noun, meaning many smiles)
    • Χαμογέλα (chamogéla) translates to: Smile. (Used as a verb, we’ re telling someone to smile)
    • Χαμογελά (chamogelá) translates to: He/She/It smiles. (Should be obvious, but it’s also used as a verb here)

    It’s overall pretty helpful and I wish more languages had this, so non-native speakers could deduce the correct pronunciation of a word just by seeing it written.