What is Acute accent?
{{refimprove|date=December 2011}} {{About|the written symbol|other uses|Accent (disambiguation)}} {{Diacritical marks|&#x00B4;}} {{Letters with acute}} The '''acute accent''' ( ´ ) is a mark in many written languages. It is usually added above a [[vowel]] to show how to [[pronunciation|say]] it. Acute accents are sometimes added to [[consonant]]s too. Sometimes, the acute accent changes the sound of the whole word by giving it stress in a sentence. This accent is part of many modern [[languages]] that use [[Latin alphabet|Latin]], [[Cyrillic alphabet|Cyrillic]], and [[Greek alphabet|Greek]] [[alphabet]]s. The acute accent is one of many similar marks called [[diacritic]]s. ==History== The acute accent was first used in [[Ancient Greece]]. It told the speaker when to say a [[syllable]] with a high [[pitch accent|pitch]]. Another early accent mark was the [[Apex (diacritic)|apex]]. In [[Latin language|Latin]] the apex marked [[vowel length|long vowels]].<ref>''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/292702 Apex and Sicilicus]'', Revilo P. Oliver, The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 87, No. 2. (Apr., 1966), p. 149.</ref> ==Uses== ===Sounds=== The acute accent is mainly used to tell readers about the sound of vowels in words. Sometimes it is very important to the meaning because it shows the difference between two similar words. For example, ''resume'' may mean to start again, but ''résumé'' is a summary of someone's work and school experience. Some languages use the accent to show the same changes in sounds, but others use it differently. The acute accent may show: * the vowel is [[Stress (linguistics)|stressed]]; * the [[vowel height]] of some stressed vowels in many [[Romance languages]]; * [[long vowel]]s; * the [[tone (linguistics)|tone]] in languages such as [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]] or [[Mandarin Chinese]] written in [[pinyin]]; * or, the pitch, or high accent, in dictionaries or language learning textbooks. === Expanding the alphabet === [[Image:Icelandic Text Extract.jpg|right|thumb|210px|Example of