The Accents
In Barese the use of the accents is obligatory:
- acute accent, used when the vocals have a closed sound: é, í, ó, ú;
- grave accent, used when the vocals have an open sound: à, è, ò;
the monosyllables haven't to be accented, without some as à (a, preposizione semplice), é (e, congiunzione coordinativa), mè (mai, avverbio di tempo), ecc.
Examples:
- Mo me n'i à scí! - Now I've to go!;
- Quànte si sscéme - What an idiot you are;
- Ué! - Hi!/Hello!;
- Ce ssi tè-tè! - You are an idiot! / You talk too much!
- Ce ttremóne! - What a wanker - it's similar to pirla in the Milano dialect.
The accents are very important to show the differences between words that are written in the same way, but which have different pronunciations. Examples:
- mé (me: personal pronoun complement, form unstressed) e mè (ever/never: time adverb);
- nu (a/an: indefinite article, masculine, singular) e nú (we, personal pronoun, subject);
- pésce (fish) e pèsce (worse);
- ué (hi/hello) e uè (you want).
Read more about this topic: Bari Dialect
Famous quotes containing the word accents:
“How many ages hence
Shall this our lofty scene be acted over
In states unborn and accents yet unknown!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Speaking thick, which nature made his blemish,
Became the accents of the valiant;
For those that could speak low and tardily
Would turn their own perfection to abuse
To seem like him.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)