Weyon: Difference between revisions

In the Weyon language, stressed syllables may be pronounced in one of two prosodically distinct ways that are determined by accent and pitch, either the acute or rising accent, or the grave or falling accent. Stress is free and can occur on any syllable of the word. However, it usually falls on the first syllable. Most nouns and verbs have a fixed stress, that is, an accent remains on the same  syllable in all the inflections, though there are some words (usually with an an initial grave accent) that have a mobile stress. Polysyllabic compound words and prefixed words, usually have one main stress, but can also receive a secondary stress, for example: ''keall-eniéka'' - "to pick blackberries" (imperfective), where only the main word receives stress (acute accent). In dialects, there are cases when words may be differentiated only by the use of accents. One example is where an accent determines the declensional case: ''haí'' "eye" and ''hài'' "with one's eyes"; ''sùuðe'' "he/she lies down" and ''suúðe'' "he/she lies''. The are also words that only differ in accent: ''éla'' "mist" and ''èla'' "language", ''aràš'' "of blood, bloody" and ''aráš'' "saltiness"; however, this may differ significantly among various dialects. Some Renta dialects lost the difference in pitch accent, but instead the stress influenced vowel quality: ''uore'' "salty" - ''areeš'' "saltyness". A similar process occurred in Ultaun, but it kept the original pitch accent intact.