Tonos

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈtÉ’nÉ’s/

Origin

From the Modern Greek τόνος ("stress, accent").

Full definition of tonos

Noun

1. (orthography and typography) The Modern Greek Stress (linguistics)-marking diacritic: ⟨ Î„ âŸ©, written atop a vowel in a given word’s stressed syllable.

Usage notes

The tonos is also used to distinguish some homograph monosyllable; for example: η, the feminine definite article, and ή, the conjunction “or”. In such cases, the tonos does not reflect a difference in stress.

When combined with the dialytika, the tonos is written between that diacritic’s two dots, as: ⟨ Î… âŸ©.

As a compromise of forms between the Ancient Greek oxia and baria, the tonos was designed as a vertical bar (similar to ⟨ Ëˆ âŸ©, the International Phonetic Alphabet primary-stress marker); however, in most cases, it and the oxia both take the form of the Latin-script acute accent: ⟨ Â´ âŸ©.

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