Prosodic accent implies the strengthening of a certain syllable.
Prosodic is a term whose etymology takes us to the Latin prosodĭcus , although the most remote antecedents are found in the Greek language. It is an adjective that refers to what is linked to prosody (the branch of grammar oriented towards accentuation, intonation and pronunciation).
The strengthening of a certain syllable is known as prosodic accent . In Spanish, this accentuation is recognized from the inclusion of an orthographic accent (also called accent ) or its absence, as indicated by the rules of spelling .
The syllable that must be highlighted in the accentuation is known as a stressed syllable , regardless of whether it has an accent or not. The rest of the syllables that do not receive prosodic stress are called unstressed syllables .
Application of prosodic accent
The way in which prosodic accent is applied varies in each language . In our language , prosodic accent implies an intensification of the voice and a change in tone so that the stressed syllable is differentiated from the others.
Let's look at some examples of prosodic accents. The word "automobile" is separated into the following syllables: au-to-mó-vil . The prosodic accent falls on the syllable mó , which has an accent since it is a serious word.
«Perro» , for its part, is a term composed of two syllables: per-rro . In this case, the prosodic accent is placed on the syllable pe , which does not have an orthographic accent since serious words that end in a vowel should not be accented with an accent.
In our language, the prosodic accent is reflected in a modification of the tone and an intensification of the voice.
Differences according to language
The function of stress is to establish a contrast between prominent syllables and soft syllables ; This action is manifested acoustically and also in writing. The academic explanation says that " stress is a perceptual sensation that allows a syllable to be highlighted over the rest of those that make up a word ."
In languages that have a fixed accent, such as French or Polish, the accent has a demarcative value that allows establishing the limits of words, the borders that divide them.
In languages in which the graphic accent can vary taking into account the rules of spelling, the accent has the function of indicating an opening in the vocal cords so that we can pronounce the words properly.
Types of prosodic accent
Within the prosodic accent there are two types of accent.
Lexical accent: As its name indicates, this type of accent depends on a grammatical category. This means that depending on the type of word: lexical (accentogenous) or grammatical (non-accentogenous) the distribution of accents will be. This type of accent is characterized by its mobile quality that gives it a certain freedom within the language to which it belongs. This type of accent can give the syllable a distinction of tonal type (more intense sounds, hit in the syllable) or of intensity (more extensive sounds).
Sentential accent: It is a type of marking within a word that is related to its intonation. It is used when communicating a message in order to create sounds that are intertwined and intermingled. This means that this issue is not reduced to the way a word is pronounced but to how it is pronounced when linked to others. That is to say, it is a type of accent that views words as parts of the whole that is the sentence or statement.
It is necessary to clarify that there are other types of accents linked to languages other than Spanish. In ancient Greek, for example, the way in which accentuation was distinguished was through a raising of the tone of voice (tensing the vocal cords more in stressed syllables). The names that the accent usually receives in these cases can be tonic, pitch, chromatic, tonal or melodic.