Tom looked at the mark over the o in the first syllable, found the same mark over the o in odd, the key word at the bottom of the page, and said, “Odd—ǒ—brǒk.”
“Good!” said Miss Merlin. “That’s the way. Now, Jack, pronounce the second syllable.”
Jack looked at the mark over o, the only letter in the second syllable, found the same mark over the o in the key word obey at the bottom of the page, and said, “Obey—ō.”
In the same way Alice studied the last syllable, finding a mark like the one used over the i in the key word ill at the bottom of the page and said very clearly, “Ill—ĭ—lĭ.”
“Fine!” said Miss Merlin. “John, you may pronounce the whole word.” John did so, sounding the letters correctly but placing the accent on the second syllable, thus, “Brok-o´-li.”
“Not quite right,” said Miss Merlin. “I am going to pronounce the word correctly. As I speak it notice which syllable I accent or emphasize.” She then repeated the word, placing the accent correctly.
“You accented the first syllable,” said Alice.
“Yes,” answered Miss Merlin, “I did. Now look at the word as I have copied it on the board from the dictionary and see if you can discover anything that tells me which syllable should be accented.”
“Oh, I know,” cried John. “There is a little mark something like a slanting exclamation mark after the first syllable! Is that why you read it like an exclamation, Miss Merlin?”
Miss Merlin laughed and answered, “Well, we call the mark an accent. But it is something like an exclamation mark in looks, and an accented syllable sounds not unlike an exclamation, John. Now pronounce the word correctly.”