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:
“No man can tell but he that loves his children, how many delicious accents make a man’s heart dance in the pretty conversation of those dear pledges; their childishness, their stammering, their little angers, their innocence, their imperfections, their necessities, are so many little emanations of joy and comfort to him that delights in their persons and society.”
—Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667)
“When the lamp is shattered,
The light in the dust lies dead;
When the cloud is scattered,
The rainbow’s glory is shed;
When the lute is broken,
Sweet tones are remembered not;
When the lips have spoken,
Loved accents are soon forgot.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)