pitch accent

British  

noun

1. Also called: tonic accent.  (in languages such as Ancient Greek or modern Swedish) an accent in which emphatic syllables are pronounced on a higher musical pitch relative to other syllables

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pitch accent

It is possible that sporadic changes of accent, as in the Gr. meter compared with the Sanskrit mata, is owing to the shifting of the pitch accent to the same syllable as the stress occupied.

From The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia Volume 1 of 28 by Project Gutenberg

The pitch accent of the Indo-European languages was originally free, i.e. might occur on any syllable of a word, and this condition of things is still found in the earliest Sanskrit literature.

From The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia Volume 1 of 28 by Project Gutenberg

Modern Greek has changed from pitch to stress, the stress being generally laid upon the same syllable in modern as bore the pitch accent in ancient Greek.

From The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia Volume 1 of 28 by Project Gutenberg

"Splendid! splendid!" he cried; "your voices, like your names, are made for one another, in quality, pitch, accent, everything."

From The Human Chord by Blackwood, Algernon

Speech involves a great variety of combinations—of pitch, accent, inflection and emphasis.

From Applied Psychology: Driving Power of Thought Being the Third in a Series of Twelve Volumes on the Applications of Psychology to the Problems of Personal and Business Efficiency by Hilton, Warren