Bari Dialect - The Accents

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;
  • ! - 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:

  • (me: personal pronoun complement, form unstressed) e (ever/never: time adverb);
  • nu (a/an: indefinite article, masculine, singular) e (we, personal pronoun, subject);
  • pésce (fish) e pèsce (worse);
  • (hi/hello) e (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)

    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)