Prosody is the correct use of the tonic accentuation of words. It is linked to orality.
There are cases where a prosody error can turn oxytone words into paroxytones or a proparoxytone into paroxytone. For example, pronounce rubric and not rubric, which is correct.
Prosody errors are called syllable.
Examples:
- Subtle (wrong), subtle (correct)
- Condor (wrong), condor (correct)
- Interim (wrong), interim (correct)
But pay attention! The cultured norm accepts two forms of stressed accents for some words.
Examples:
- acrobat or acrobat
- hieroglyph or hieroglyph
- projectile or projectile
- reptile or reptile
- Sor or Sor
- Xerox or Xerox
- drone or drone
To make no more mistakes, check out the list below:
Oxytone words
Catheter, condor, Gibraltar, mister, nobel, newly, hostage, bad, subtle, ureter.
Paroxytone words
Avaricious, austere, batavian, fortune teller, cyclops, dean, scholar, free philanthropist, Hungary, ibero, juniors, latex, leukemia, machinery, misanthrope, merchandise, water lily, Normandy, prudishness, palmistry, record, rubric, textile, tulip.
Proparoxytone words
Aerodrome, agape, alcoholic, core, amalgam, androgynous, anemone, antiphon, archetype, bustle, bavarian, bigamus, brahmin, hemp, Cerberus, chrysanthemum, Ethiopian, exodus, hippodrome, idolatrous, interim, sheath, leukocyte, omega, Pegasus, pleiad, prototype, zenith.
Orthoepy
Orthoepia also deals with the pronunciation of words, but not with regard to tonic accentuation. For example: beggar instead of beggar, pleasant instead of pleasant, butter instead of butter.
Exercises
1. (ITA-SP) For this question, note that:
1 – the graphic accent was eliminated;
2 – the proposed stressed syllables are represented by highlighted capital letters.
Ex: catastrophe (the proposed stressed syllable is TAS)
When listening, then:
initial, aVAro, proTOtype, free, it is verified that:
a) only one word was correctly pronounced.
b) only two words were correctly pronounced.
c) three words were correctly pronounced.
d) all were correctly pronounced.
e) none were correctly pronounced.
Alternative c: three words were correctly pronounced.
The word free is pronounced free, not free.
2. Based on what you've learned about prosody, define whether the words below are oxytone, paroxytone or proparoxytone:
Normandy, footprint, periphery, modesty, tulip.
Words are paroxytones.
3. Which words below are proparoxytones?
Bad, phase, leukocyte, edict, philanthropist, omega, ureter, Ethiopian
Leukocyte, omega, Ethiopian.
Tip: all proparoxytones are accentuated!
4. Which of the words below are examples of oxytones?
Zenith, textile, libido, nobel, meteorite, hangar, ureter, fortuitous, free, Gibraltar, anemone
Nobel, hangar, ureter, Gibraltar
As for the other words:
- zenith and anemone are proparoxytones
- textile, libido, meteorite, fortuitous and free are paroxytones
