Italian Accent Marks

Segni Diacritici

Segni diacritici.Punti diacritici.Segnaccento (orsegno d'accento, oraccento scritto). However you refer to them in Italian, accent marks (also referred to asdiacritical marks) are added or attached to a letter to distinguish it from another of similar form, to give it a particular phonetic value, or to indicate stress. Note that in this discussion, the term "accent" does not refer to the pronunciation characteristic of a given region or geographical location (for example, a Neapolitan accent or Venetian accent) but rather toorthographic marks.

The Big Four in Accent Marks

In Italianortografia (spelling) there are four accent marks:

accento acuto (acute accent) [´]

accento grave (grave accent) [`]

accento circonflesso (circumflex accent) [ˆ]

dieresi (diaresis) [¨]

In contemporary Italian, the acute and grave accents are the most commonly encountered. The circumflex accent is rare and the diaresis (also referred to as an umlaut) is usually only found in poetic or literary texts. Italian accent marks can be divided into three categories: mandatory, optional, and incorrect.

Required accent marks are those that, if not used, constitute a spelling error; facultative accent marks are those a writer uses to avoid ambiguity of meaning or reading; wrong accent marks are those that are written without any purpose and, even in the best of cases, only serve to weigh down the text.

When Accent Marks Are Needed

In Italian, the accent mark is obligatory:

1. With all words of two or more syllables that end with a vowel that is stressed:libertà,perché,finì,abbandonò,laggiù (the wordventitré also requires an accent);
2. With monosyllables ending in two vowels, of which the second has a truncated sound:chiù,ciò, diè,già,giù,piè,più,può,scià. One exception to this rule are the wordsqui andqua;
3. With the following monosyllables in order to distinguish them from other monosyllables of identical spelling, which have a different meaning when unaccented:

—ché, in the sense ofpoiché,perché, causal conjunction ("Andiamo ché si fa tardi") to distinguish it from the conjunction or pronounche ("Sapevo che eri malato", "Can che abbaia non morde");

—dà, the present indicative ofdare ("Non mi dà retta") to distinguish it from theprepositionda, and fromda’, the imperative form ofdare ("Viene da Roma", "Da’ retta, non partire");

—dì, when meaning day ("Lavora tutto il dì") to distinguish it from theprepositiondi ("È l’ora di alzarsi") anddi’, the imperative form ofdire ("Di’ che ti piace");

—è, verb (“Non è vero”) to distinguish it from the conjunctione ("Io e lui");

—là, adverb of place ("È andato là") to distinguish it from the article, pronoun, or musical notela ("Dammi la penna", "La vidi", "Dare il la all’orchestra");

—lì, adverb of place ("Guarda lì dentro") to distinguish it from the pronounli ("Li ho visti");

—né, conjunction ("Né io né Mario") to distinguish it from the pronoun or adverbne ("Ne ho visti parecchi", "Me ne vado subito", "Ne vengo proprio ora");

—sé, stressedpersonal pronoun ("Lo prese con sé") to distinguish it from the unstressed pronounse or the conjunctionse ("Se ne prese la metà", "Se lo sapesse");

—sì, adverb of afirmation or to express the sentiment "così" ("Sì, vengo", "Sì bello e sì caro") to distinguish it from the pronounsi ("Si è ucciso");

—tè, plant and drink ("Piantagione di tè", "Una tazza di tè”) to distinguish it fromte (closed sound) pronoun ("Vengo con te").

When Accents Are Optional

The accent mark is optional:

1. With a, that is, stressed on the third-to-last syllable, so as not to be confused with the identically spelled word that is pronounced with the accent on the penultimate syllable. For example,nèttare andnettare,cómpito andcompito,súbito andsubito,càpitano andcapitano,àbitino andabitino,àltero andaltero,àmbito andambito,àuguri andauguri,bàcino andbacino,circùito andcircuito,frústino andfrustino,intúito andintuito,malèdico andmaledico,mèndico andmendico,nòcciolo andnocciolo,rètina andretina,rúbino andrubino,séguito andseguito,víola andviola,vitùperi andvituperi.
2. When it signals the vocal stress on words ending in -io, -ía, -íi, -íe, such asfruscío,tarsía,fruscíi,tarsíe, as well aslavorío,leccornía,gridío,albagía,godío,brillío,codardía, and many other instances. A more important reason is when the term, with a different pronunciation, would change meaning, for example:balía andbalia,bacío andbacio,gorgheggío andgorgheggio,regía andregia.
3. Then there are those optional accents that might be referred to as phonic because they signal the correct pronunciation of the vowelse ando within a word; an opene oro has one meaning while a closede oro has another:fóro (hole, opening),fòro (piazza, square);téma (fear, dread),tèma (theme, topic);mèta (ending, conclusion),méta (dung, excrement);còlto (from the verbcogliere),cólto (educated, learned, cultured);ròcca (fortress),rócca, (spinning tool). But beware: these phonetic accents are beneficial only if the speaker understands the difference between the acute and grave accent; otherwise disregard the accent mark, since it is not mandatory.

When Accents Are Wrong

The accent mark is wrong:

1. First and foremost, when it is incorrect: there should be no accent on the wordsqui andqua, according to the exception noted;
2. and when it is completely useless. It is a mistake to write "dieci anni fà," accenting the verbal formfa, which would never be confused with the musical notefa; as it would be a mistake to write "non lo sò" or "così non và" accenting without reasonso andva.