Sanders' Union Fourth Reader / Embracing a Full Exposition of the Principles of Rhetorical Reading; with Numerous Exercises for Practice, Both in Prose and Poetry, Various in Style, and Carefully Adapted to the Purposes of Teaching in Schools of Every Grade

by Charles W. Sanders

ACCENT and EMPHASIS both indicate some special stress of voice.

Accent is that stress of voice by which one syllable of a word is made more prominent than others; EMPHASIS is that stress of voice by which one or more words of a sentence are distinguished above the rest.

ACCENT.

The accented syllable is sometimes designated thus: (′); as, com-mand′-ment.

NOTE I.—Words of more than two syllables generally have two or more of them accented.

The more forcible stress of voice, is called the Primary Accent; and the less forcible, the Secondary Accent.

EXAMPLES OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY ACCENT.

In the following examples the Primary Accent is designated by double accentual marks, thus:

Ed″-u-cate′, ed′-u-ca″-tion, mul″-ti-ply′, mul′-ti-pli-ca″-tion, sat″-is-fy′, sat′-is-fac″-tion, com′-pre-hend″, com′-pre-hen″-sion, rec′-om-mend″, rec′-om-mend-a″-tion, mo″-ment-a′-ry, com-mun″-ni-cate′, com′-pli-ment″-al, in-dem′-ni-fi-ca″-tion, ex′-tem-po-ra″-ne-ous, coun′-ter-rev′-o-lu″-tion-a-ry.

NOTE II.—The change of accent on the same word often changes its meaning.