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

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

But this pitch accent, while alien to us, is not impossible of acquisition, and it is essential to any adequate rendering of any Latin writer, whether of prose or verse.

From The Roman Pronunciation of Latin Why we use it and how to use it by Lord, Frances Ellen

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

Otherwise, longing, abhorrence, pleasure and pain, hunger and satiety, are indicated by pitch, accent, timbre, intensity of the vocal sounds, more decidedly than by syllables.

From The Mind of the Child, Part II The Development of the Intellect, International Education Series Edited By William T. Harris, Volume IX. by Preyer, William T.

"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