3 Reasons Why Accents Matter
Really, y’all shouldn’t have to be taught this.
But the amount of disregard I’ve seen monolingual Anglophone people show to accents over the years since learning English clearly shows that people don’t seem to grasp the concept of “accents serve a utilitarian purpose and are not just there to make the writing look cool”.
1. Accents show which syllable to emphasize.
You know how English is a hard language to learn? That’s partly due to the fact that y’all don’t bother to differentiate between words like lead and lead or read and read.
Were English a sensible language it would have some sort of symbol above or below the letter E for either the verb or the noun so that you could differentiate the words.
In many languages, the number of syllables determines where the emphasis in the word should be, so sometimes accents are used to indicate that the word`s emphasis does not follow the usual rules. If you take away the accent, people will place the emphasis in the wrong syllable, and thus mispronounce the word.
2. Accents tell you which sound you’re supposed to use.
In French (and Portuguese), for example, C has a /k/ sound, like the C in car. Ç, on the other hand, has an /s/ sound.
So the little wiggle below the C means the pronunciation of the word is completely different.
This means that if you remove the accent from someone’s name you’re no longer writing their name.
If you spell the name François without the proper accent you’re calling the person “frank-wa”, not “frans-wa”. That’s not their name, yo.
3. Accents can completely change the meaning of a word.
Remember the C vs Ç thing from the previous point? Well, here’s how the accent changes a word:
In Portuguese forca (f’oh-r-kah) means gallows. As in the place where someone gets executed by hanging.
Força (f’oh-r-sah) means strength or power.
Here’s an example that might hit closer to home:
You know the song Feliz Navidad? Well, when you write the lyrics as prospero ano y felicidad instead of prospero año y felicidad you are wishing someone a “prosperous anus and happiness”.
Here are some examples of other words that change meaning and/or pronunciation based on accent use:
Avó - Grandmother
Avô - Grandfather
Manga - Mango or shirt sleeve depending on the context
Mangá - Manga, Japanese-style comics
Coco - Coconut
Cocô - Poop
Cocó - Onomatopeia for the sound chickens make/toddler word for “bird”
Sábia - Wise woman
Sabia - Past participle of saber (to know)
Sabiá - A kind of bird
Âge - age
Âgé - (adjective) old
Mais - (conjunction) but
Maïs - corn
A - third person singular of avoir (to have)
À - (preposition) to, at, in
Aie - first person singular subjunctive and second person singular imperative of avoir
Aïe - (interjection) ouch
Congres - eels
Congrès - conference, congress
Cote - quotation, quoted value, rating
Coté - highly thought of/rated (past participle of côter)
Côte - rib, slope, coastline
Côté - side
De - (preposition) of, from
Dé - thimble, die
Ferme - farm
Fermé - past participle of fermer (to close)
Gène - gene
Gêne - trouble, bother, embarrassment
Gêné - (adjective) short of, embarrassed; past participle of gêner (to bother)
Jeune - (adjective) young
Jeûne - fasting
And that’s not even going into how removing an accent can turn something from a word into complete gibberish (which is often what happens if you remove the accent).
germansingergirl
turnnoffyourmind
titsay
yousharknotpass
gummygunk
vaporwave
stormborns
