If you hear spoken Swedish and Norwegian, you would find that these languages tend to sound considerably more melodic compared to many of their Germanic counterparts. This difference is predominantly attributed to their 'pitch-accent' feature, where certain stressed syllables tend to come with some form of tone, or more rather, accent. To recap, in Swedish, … Continue reading So, how did Swedish (and Norwegian) gain word accents?
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What even are ‘pitch-accent’ languages? (Setting the stage)
When you browse through introductions of many languages, you would come across terms such as 'tonal language' and 'pitch-accent language' used to describe some of these languages. For instance, the Chinese languages are among the most well-known tonal languages, while Japanese is amongst the most well-known pitch-accent languages. Furthermore, there are some languages that appear … Continue reading What even are ‘pitch-accent’ languages? (Setting the stage)
The curious rise of the Antarctic accent
English is a weird language. It is globally known, and to various extents, are spoken to varying proficiencies. With it, also comes its mingling with other languages, and more interestingly, geographical isolation. English has become an ubiquitous language -- spoken almost everywhere on Earth, probably except the uninhabited islands that dot the Earth's crust. The … Continue reading The curious rise of the Antarctic accent
The Language Closet 