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Introduction
Introduccción
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Accent
Stress
Predictability
Stress in Spanish
Basic Terms
o Vowels (vocales)
o Diphthongs (diptongos)
o Syllables (sílabas)
o Diéresis
The use of the word “accent” can frequently lead to confusion, as we use
it to convey three distinct meanings:
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Accent (acento, manera de hablar): a way a person speaks a
language, especially the particular pronunciation and vocabulary. As
in: She speaks with a Southern accent.
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Emphasis (énfasis, acento tónico): the choice of pronouncing certain
syllables in a word in a more exagerated way. As in: He said
“cOnstellation” instead of “constellAtion,” the accent (or emphasis)
was wrong.
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Written mark (acento escrito, tilde): A written mark over a word that
carries some kind of grammatical significance. As in: The word café
comes from French, and is written with an accent.
In this class we will use two of these meanings, with their
associated terms:
EMPHASIS or STRESS: énfasis, acento tónico
WRITTEN ACCENT: acento, acento escrito, tilde
Before taking a closer look at the rules of writing accent marks
in Spanish, it is important to understand the basic premises:
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Accent marks are not random
Accent marks are ALWAYS written over a vowel
A vowel that carries an accent mark is ALWAYS pronounced
with emphasis
And now, the most important premise of all:
- If a word carries an accent mark, it is an indicator that it
contradicts an expected pattern in pronunciation
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To understand stress (or emphasis), we need to understand
syllables.
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What is a syllable?
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Typically, a syllable consists of a vowel and a consonant. For
instance, the word “mamá” has two syllables: ma-má.
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There is a variety of syllables; the common denominator in all is the
vowel:
o Vowel only
o Consonant + vowel
o Vowel + consonant
o Consonant + vowel + consonant, etc.
Examples: á-ni-mo; con-duc-tor; as-tros
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Invariably, in a word, one syllable will be pronounced more
emphatically than the others: this is tonic emphasis or tonic
stress. It exists in all languages.
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Stress is important, because it’s crucial to meaning. There
is a difference between “I signed a cOntract.” and “You can
contrAct a disease.” Also, between “yo cAnto” and “él
cantO.”
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So if stress exists in all languages, and it’s important to
meaning—and therefore we must be conditioned to identify
it—why is it difficult for some of us to hear it?
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If you have problems “hearing” the emphasis in a word it is
because you are exposed to English.
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As a participant in this class, you probably identify with one of
the following descriptions:
o You grew up in the US, in a household where Spanish was spoken daily
o You studied Spanish either in high school or in college
o You lived in a Spanish-speaking country, and are currently living in the
US
o You were born in a Spanish-speaking country, and are currently living in
the US
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The bottom line is, you are all surrounded by English, and
English is most likely to be dominant in your daily activities
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What does English have to do with accents in Spanish?
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As a “dominant code” English creates a certain expectation
of how a language behaves. Consciously or not, it colors
your perception of Spanish.
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The way English is spoken is quite different from the way
English is written, and from early on you have learned to rely
not so much on a pattern (although patterns exist), but on
memorizing on a case-by-case basis.
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We don’t have to look too far to find that it’s not easy to rely
on a rule in English: homographs (words written in the same
way, but pronounced differently) can help us understand.
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Write down for yourself, and pronounce out loud sentences
containing the following words, once as a noun, once as a
verb:
o DESERT
o LAMINATE
o CONSTRUCT
o PERMIT
o RECORD
o SUBJECT
Ex.
(1) I walk through the desert.
(2) Do not desert your post.
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Nothing in the external form of these English words shows us
where to pronounce the emphasis.
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Consider this: as English speakers you DO HEAR the
emphasis, but you are not trained to focus on perceiving it.
Since you get the correct meaning and pronunciation from
context, your perception focus is on the context, not on the
form. In a sense, what you are not looking for is not there.
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But it is. And you are perfectly tuned into it. Otherwise you
wouldn’t find Mike Myers funny:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbjE8KI-j3M. It’s a matter
of making your perception conscious.
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Let’s have a look at a series of words:
collate
chocolate
relatable
vegetable
alcoholic
Catholic
Each horizontal pair has the same ending. If English were
consistent, and the second word in the pair followed the
pattern of pronunciation of the first word, we would be saying
choco-lAte, vegE-table, and ca-thOlic. Well, it’s obviously not
the case.
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Now, let’s have a look at the Spanish equivalencies:
chocolate
chocolate
vegetable
vegetal
Catholic
católico
You probably didn’t have any hesitation when pronouncing the
Spanish words (as a bonus, one has a written accent, which
shows us where the emphasis is).
Let’s have a look at Spanish words with similar endings:
chocolate
metateempezaste
vegetal
documental instrumental
católico
histórico
bucólico
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From the examples we just saw, it becomes quite obvious
that Spanish is more markedly pattern-based, and we can
make fairly consistent predictions about how words will be
pronounced based on their form. From our example we can
infer:
o That the words that ended in –ate, will have emphasis on the
second-to-last syllable;
o That the words that end in –ol, will have emphasis on the last
syllable
o That the words with a written accent will have emphasis where the
accent is written
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This brings us closer to the rules of so-called “natural
stress” and the associated rules of written accents
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Let’s stay with Spanish, and have a closer look at the sound
system.
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As you already know, Spanish has five vowels, always pronounced
with the same level of clarity and aperture: a, o u, e, i.
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The vowels a, e, o are considered strong. In other words, if two
strong vowels are next to each other in a word, like in “paella”,
they will form TWO DIFFERENT SYLLABLES.
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The vowels i and u are considered week. In other words, when
two week vowels are next to each other, or when a strong and a
week vowel form a pair, they form a DIPHTHONG, which means
that this is JUST ONE SYLLABLE.
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If a word contains a combination of a [strong vowel + weak
vowel], but the WEAK is pronounced with emphasis, this
contradits our expectation of a diphthong. In other words, the
expected pattern of natural stress is not followed.
Consequently, we need a sign that would help us read the word
correctly. That’s why we have WRITTEN ACCENT.
Compare:
piano
fraude
cuota
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María
Raúl
continúo
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To understand better when there is or there isn’t a
diphthong, complete the activities in your Manual that ask
you to identify words with a diphthong (palabras con
diptongo) and words with a “broken diphthong”(palabras
con diptongo roto).
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To understand better the division in syllables, do the
activities that ask you to divide words in syllables.
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“U” is the only vowel in Spanish that can be mute (i.e., it’s
not pronounced, just used for spelling purposes). We use it
before an “e” and an “i“ to represent the sounds [k] y [g]:
o Que, queso, quise, querer, quizá, química
o Guerra, llegué, guisado, guisante, alguien
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There are certain words like “lingüística” where “u” is
pronounced. In order to read a word like this correctly, we
need an indication – a punctuation marker. In this case, you
will notice the two dots above the “u”. In Spanish, these are
called diéresis: cigüeña, averigüe, güero, etc.
BEYOND THIS POINT, WE SWITCH TO SPANISH!
SAMPLE THE LAST 4 SLIDES IN THEIR VERSION IN SPANISH.
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En español hay cinco vocales: a, o, e, i, u.
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Las vocales fuertes son: a, o, e.
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Las vocales débiles son: i, u.
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Dos vocales fuertes juntas forman DOS SÍLABAS.
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Dos vocales déblies juntas forman DIPTONGO = UNA SÍLABA.
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Vocal fuerte junto con vocal débil forma un DIPTONGO = UNA
SÍLABA. Como es natural, en el diptongo, la vocal fuerte se
pronuncia con más énfasis.
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Si en una palabra hay combinación de vocal fuerte + vocal
débil, pero la vocal débil se pronuncia con énfasis, esto
contradice nuestra expectativa de “regla natural”.
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Por consiguiente, al escribir debemos indicar que la palabra
contradice el modelo natural. Por eso, escribimos ACENTO
ESCRITO.
Comparen:
piano
María
fraude
Raúl
residuos
continúo
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Para comprender mejor cuándo hay o no hay diptongo,
hagan los ejercicios en el manual que les piden identificar
palabras con diptongo y palabras con “diptongo roto”.
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Para comprender mejor el silabeo, hagan los ejercicios en
el manual que les piden dividir las palabras en sílabas.
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La “u” es la única vocal en español que puede ser muda. La
usamos antes de la “e” y de la “i“ para representar los
sonidos [k] y [g]:
o Que, queso, quise, querer, quizá, química
o Guerra, llegué, guisado, guisante, alguien
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Hay algunas palabras como “lingüística” donde la “u” se
pronuncia. Para saber cómo pronunciar correctamente, se
necesita indicar eso con un signo de puntuación. En este
caso, se usan dos puntos sobre la “u”. Estos dos puntos se
llaman diéresis: cigüeña, averigüe, güero, etc.