Did you know that there are two types of accents that change the way a vowel is pronounced? An accent that slants up from left to right marks the stressed vowel, like the Spanish word for song: canción. The emphasis falls on the o at the end of the word.
An accent that down from left to right lengthens or shortens the vowel sound in some languages and lifts or drops the vowel sound in others. In some romance languages, that symbol marks an open vowel (the sound is pronounced with the tongue dropped low, away from the roof of the mouth). Crème brûlée is a French word that hasn’t been assimilated into the English language. The accent over the first e in brûlée indicates an open vowel sound at the end of the word.
The interesting thing is that both types of accent are named with a word that can also describe a critical health condition: acute and grave, respectively. Acute is more of a technical term; grave is sort of on the dramatic side. But both words describe both punctuation marks and medical status.
Isn’t that like, crazy, how it worked out like that? Do you think they picked those names on purpose?
