Re: YAEPT: Porn rhymes with dawn? Argumentam ad cantum!

On 3/26/07, Benct Philip Jonsson <conlang@...> wrote:
> BTW why is it Anglophones call dialects 'accents'?
We don't.  There's a distinction there.

An "accent" is a variety of pronunciation.  And only the
pronunciation.  Dialectical variations in word choice, grammar, or
anything else are not part of what constitutes an "accent".  Of
course, in many cases, dialectical word differences can be
(mis)construed as different pronunciations of the same word, so the
line is fuzzy.  But it's nevertheless a clear distinction in intent.

As for the diacritic: "accent" is also a synonym for "stress" or
"emphasis" in the context of syllables, hence the term "accent mark"
for the symbol used to indicate which syllable receives the accent in
any given word.

--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>