2021-04-04
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด – A – accent & mark & accent mark
แนะนำการใช้ ตามที่ส่วนใหญ่ใช้ แต่ละท้องถิ่น
ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ตาม ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง accent & mark & accent mark
ACCENT
Definition:
Noun = a mark indicating stress (as (ˈ, ˌ), or (′, ″)),
vowel quality (as French grave `, acute ´, circumflex ^ ),
form (as French la “the” versus là “there”), or pitch.
Verb = to pronounce with prominence (a syllable within a word
ora word within a phrase):
to accent the first syllable of “into”;
to accent the first word of “White House.”
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Historyand Etymology for accent
Noun
Middle English, "modulation of the voice,"
borrowed fromMiddle French & Latin;
Middle French, "modulation of the voice,
prominence in pitch on a given syllable," going back to Old French, borrowed from Latin accentus
(loan translation of Greek prosōidía), from ad- AD- + cantus "song,
"action noun derivative of canere "to sing"
— more at CHANT entry 1, PROSODY
NOTE: The word occurs in Old English
as accent in the sense "accent mark" in Byrhtferth's Enchiridion,
but there is no continuity between this and later uses.
Verb
borrowed fromMiddle French accenter "to pronounce with greater stress," in part derivative of accent ACCENT entry 1,
in part borrowedfrom Medieval Latin accentāre, variant of accentuāre — more at ACCENTUATE
Dictionary.com
Which Letters Really Need Accent Marks?
Fancy? Fundamental? Or just plain frustratingto deal with?
Accent marksdraw a mixed reaction from people.
So, do we really need them? Let’s take a look.
What is an accent mark, anyway?
Accent marksare diacritic marks,
which are added to a letter or characterto set them apart from others
and “give it a particular phonetic value, to indicate stress, etc.”
That makes sense,
as the adjective diacritical means “serving to distinguish.”
Other diacritic marksinclude cedilla, tilde, circumflex, and macron.
There are two different types of accent marks: acute and grave.
The acute accent, which slants toward the right,
is used to indicate that the vowel over which it’s placed
should be stressed the most. For example, détente.
A grave accent, on the other hand, slants toward the left
and is placed over a vowel that should be pronounced
with a lowor falling pitch. For example, vis-à-vis.
Are accent marks really that important?
While most words with accent marks come fromother languages
—Spanish and French, predominantly
—some of them have become part of the English language, too.
The accent marks remain, and, in some cases,
are necessary to differentiate between words
that are otherwise spelled alike.
For example,
you wouldn’t want to tell someone you’re going to bring them a lame shirt when you what you mean is a lamé shirt.
And on a hot summer day,
a nice rosé sounds a lot better than a rose with dinner … though that might be nice, too.
Other examplesthat could be confusing include resume vs. résumé and expose vs. exposé
—same letters, but different meanings and pronunciations with the accent marks.
That said, over time, we tend to lose accent marks,
as the pronunciations become commonplace.
For example,
in most cases cafe is perfectly acceptable for café in English,
and you rarely see the city of San Jose written with an accent mark.
When it comes to someone’s given name, however,
not includingthe accent mark may be akin to misspelling the name
or calling someone by a nickname they don’t use
(Becky instead of Rebecca or Jimmy instead of James).
Beyoncé just wouldn’t be the same as Beyonce, right?
Queen Bey even released an “accent on the é” T-shirt to drive home the point.
In some states, such as California, however,
parents are bannedfrom giving their babies names
that include accents and other diacritical markson birth certificates
and official documents.
Instead, they’re limitedto “using the 26 letters of the English alphabet,” though apostrophes still somehow make the grade.
Other states allow accents,
but things could get tricky if you’re born in a state that allows them and then move and attempt to do paperwork in one that doesn’t.
Why are they banned?
In California, some say it goes back to 1986 and Proposition 63,
which made English the state’s official language.
However, many argue that such laws are simply antiquated,
and modern keyboards negate any justifications
about accent marks being too difficult to input.
Some say such laws are downright unconstitutional.
Are the days of diacritical marks numbered? Perhaps.
They were previously used in Old English,
but largely disappeared after the printing press came to Britain.
While still a vital part of many languages around the world,
some language professionals are recommending
some diacritical marks are unnecessary.
How to type accent marks
In the meantime,
accents are still an essential part of our written language,
and they should be included in many cases,
particularly when it comes to people’s names.
The simplest way to insert them is to use your computer’s shortcut keys. (No, don’t try to ink them in after you print out your work.) Here’s how:
On a Mac
Acute accent mark:
Press option and the letter E at the same time.
Then release and type the letter above which you want the accent mark to appear. Voilà!
Grave accent mark:
Press option and the grave accent mark
(upper left-hand corner sharing the key with the tilde) at the same time, then release and type the letter over which you want the accent mark to appear.
On a PC
Acute accent mark:
Press control and the apostrophe key at the same time.
Then release and type the letter over which you want the accent mark to appear.
Grave accent mark:
Press control and the accent mark
(upper left-hand corner sharing a key with the tilde),
then release and type the letter over which you want the accent mark to appear.
While they may take a few extra taps on your keyboard,
accent marksare still important in some cases.
While we’re likely to see them slip away over time
as the world continues its digital journey,
but for now, we should accept accents and use them appropriately.
And if you’re not sure if a word needs one or not, we’re always here to help.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
A Guide to Deciphering Diacritics
You know, the markings above and below letters.
What Is a Diacritic, Anyway?
Diacritics are marks placed above or below (or sometimes next to)
a letter in a word to indicate a particular pronunciation
—in regard to accent, tone, or stress—as well as meaning,
especially when a homograph exists without the marked letter or letters.
For example,
pâte refers to clay whereas pate refers to the head, and résumé or resumé is used for a work history versus resume,
which means "to begin again."
Diacritical marks take such forms
as a straight or curvy line or a dot or a pair of dots,
and they are an integral part of spelling in many foreign languages.
In English, words having diacritics are borrowings from other languages, and the marks are not a natural part of the English language itself.
However, lexicographers have adopted diacritics
to indicate English pronunciation and, of course,
to show word etymologies.
Although the English borrowings enter the language with their markings, they are often dropped from many spellings through Anglicization.
Take, for instance,
French naïve, which is commonly spelled naive in English.
The word diacritic is a derivative of Greek diakritikos,
meaning "separative" or "able to distinguish,"
which is based on the prefix dia-, meaning "through" or "across,"
and the verb krinein, "to separate."
The word was first used as an adjective in 17th-century English
with the meaning "serving to distinguish"
(as in "diacritic factors in demography").
It wasn't until the 19th century that it began being used
as the name for a phonological diacritical
(the '-al' spelling of the adjective being the most common) mark.
Diacritical marksare important
in correctly pronouncing many foreign words
that have migrated into the English language.
Being a publisher of references on the English language,
we feel it is important to give a tutorial on the more common diacritics
that you will encounter in your pursuit of knowledge through reading.
So, without further ado, let's begin.
Acute and Grave Accent Marks
The forward-leaning acute accent ( ́)
Generally, indicates a stressed syllable or raised pitch.
It is commonly found above the letter 'e' in many French words and French borrowings in English,
such as exposé, where it indicates that the 'e' is pronounced as a long 'a'
and where it can serve to distinguish the word from another
with the same spelling (compare English's expose).
The acute accent is also placed over vowels in Spanish
to mark that the syllable in which the vowel appears is stressed, as in adiós.
The backward-leaning grave accent ( ˋ )
is in contrast to the acute accent.
It is a mark that is often used to indicate an unaccented syllable
or a lower inflection,
as French-derived à la carte, pied-à-terre, or crème.
In poetic verse, it is used as an indicator of a falling inflection
or a final syllable that is to be pronounced separately,
for the sake of the meter, in words ending in the nonsyllabic '-ed.'
Margret stood in her chamber; / She'd sewn a silken seam. / She lookèd east an she lookèd west, / An she saw those woods grow green.
— "Tam Lin," The Singing Tradition of Child's Popular Ballads, 1972
The French-based English word déjà vu combines both accent marks.
Cedilla
The cedilla is the diacritical mark ( ̧)
that is placed under the letter 'c,'
as in the spelling of the French words façade and garçon,
to indicate that
the letter is to be pronounced \s\, rather than \k\.
Cedilla is from the name of the obsolete Spanish letter 'ç'
and is a diminutive form of ceda, itself from zeda,
which once denoted the letter 'z.'
Actually, the 'ç' was used as a form of 'z' in the Middle Ages.
In Late Latin, that letter was referred to as zeta.
Circumflex
Today, circumflex most commonly refers to the mark ( ˆ ),
but in ancient times it designated other "bent" marks ( ⌢ or ˜ ).
The name derives from a Latin verb meaning "to bend around,"
and it is used for the symbol placed above a long vowel
to indicate a rising-falling tone in Greek
and to mark length, contraction, or another particular pronunciation
of a vowelin other languages, such as French—
for example, the pronunciations of château, crêpe, maître d', and rôle.
Breve and Haček
The breve ( ˘ )is the rounded curved mark
that is used by some dictionaries in pronunciations
to indicate that a vowel is short,
as in \kŭt\ for cut, or in poetic scansion
to show that a syllable is unstressed in verse.
It is similar to the haček ( ˇ ),
whose name includes the inverted pointed circumflex over the 'c,'
that is used in Baltic and Slavonic languages
to indicate a change in pronunciation
(the last name of the Czech author Karel Čapek bears the diacritic).
The name haček is a Czech borrowing
meaning, literally, "little hook."
Breve is related to brief via Latin brevis, of similar meaning.
Tilde and Tittle
The tilde is the mark ( ˜ )
that is most often seen sitting over the letter 'n'
(as in Spanish señor, meaning "sir," and mañana, "tomorrow"),
where it indicates a blend of the sound of 'n' and 'y.'
In Portuguese, it may appear over 'a' or 'o,' as in São Paulo, and indicates nasality in pronunciation.
The diacritic's nameis a 19th-century borrowing from a Spanish word that traces back to Medieval Latin titulus, meaning "tittle."
In English, tittle can refer to
any pointor small sign that is used as a diacritical mark.
It has been applied to the dot over the letters 'i' and 'j,'
and in the past, to the cedilla;
it is also used in languages, such as Hebrew and Arabic, to point out accent. In Latin, titulus meant "title" or "label,"
which is fitting since the tittle tops the letter like a title to a piece of writing.
The tildealso occurs as a somewhat larger symbol
that resembles the swung dash, that is set somewhat lower,
and that is used independently of other characters.
This tildeis sometimes used in front of a number
to mean "approximately"(e.g., "in ~ 30 minutes"),
and it has other advanced mathematical uses
related to equivalency and negation.
It also has a conventional use in URLs,
where it indicates that the URL is a personal page
residing on the institutional server
whose address precedes the tilde in the URL.
And print dictionaries use the tilde(a.k.a. "swung dash")
to take the place of the entry word in verbal illustrations
(example sentences) in order to save space.
The words tilde and swung dash
are not compared or contrasted in the dictionary
because, although they are related on a "real" level
(i.e., they happen to be represented by the same mark),
they are not related on a lexical level
(i.e., the words themselves are not related to one another through their respective meanings).
Diaeresis
The diaeresis, or dieresis,
is the mark ( ¨ )
that is often placed over the second of two adjacent vowels,
which otherwise make a diphthong forming one speech sound,
to indicatethat the vowels are pronounced in separate syllables,
as in French naïve and its derivatives;
it may also be placed over a vowel
to indicate that it is pronounced in a separate syllable,
as in the family name Brontë (namely Charlotte and her sisters Emily and Anne) or Zoë.
In the past,
it also occurred in words having adjacent vowels
that are the same to indicate that
they are sounded separately rather than blended,
as in coöperate and reëstablish
(each of which have four syllables).
Diaeresis is from a Greek word meaning, literally, "the act of dividing."
In German and Germanic languages (such as Swedish),
there is the diaeretic mark called the umlaut,
which is placed over a vowel
to indicate a more central or front articulation,
as in Götterdämmerung and Führer.
(In orthography, the umlaut may be replaced by an 'e'
following the vowel, as in Fuehrer.)
Umlaut is a combination of German um-,
meaning"around" or "transforming," and Laut, "sound."
Macron
The macron is the mark ( − )
placed over a vowel to indicate that it is long
or placed over a syllable
or used aloneto indicate a stressed
or long syllable in a metrical foot or verse in poetry.
You are most likely to encounter it in dictionaries,
where it populates pronunciations of words
that include a long vowel sound,
as ā in the pronunciation of fate or ē in lead.
Common Errors In English Usage Dictionary
Accent marks
Words adopted from foreign languages
sometimes carry their accent markswith them,
as in“fiancé,” “protégé,” and “cliché.”
As words become more at home in English,
they tend to shed the marks:
“Café” is often spelled “cafe.”
Unfortunately,
“résumé” seems to be losing its marks one at a time
(see under “vita/vitae”).
Many computer users have not learned their systems well enough
to understand how to produce the desired accent
and often insert an apostrophe (curled) or foot mark (straight)
after the accented letter instead: “cafe'.”
This is both ugly and incorrect.
The same error is commonly seen on storefront signs.
So far, we’ve used examples containing acute (right-leaning) accent marks.
French and Italian(but not Spanish) words
often containgrave (left-leaning) accents; in Italian it’s a caffè.
It is important not to substitute one kind of accent for the other.
The diaeresisover a letter signifies that
it is to be pronounced as a separate syllable:
“noël” and “naïve” are sometimes spelled with a diaeresis, for instance.
The umlaut, which looks identical, modifies the sound of a vowel,
as in German Fräulein,
where the accent mark changes the “ow” sound of Frau (woman)
to “froy”(girl).
Rock groups like “Blue Öyster Cult” scatter umlauts about
nonsensically to create an exotic look.
Spanish words not completely assimilated into English
like piñata and niño retain the tilde,
which tells you that an “N” is to be pronounced with a “Y” sound after it.
In English-language publications accent marks are often discarded,
but the acute
and grave accents are the ones most often retained.
