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

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

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

In aboriginal America also pitch accent is known to occur as a grammatical process.

From Language An Introduction to the Study of Speech by Sapir, Edward

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