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Guillemets

Notation
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

French quotation marks (« ») used in poetry for dialogue or embedded quotations in Francophone texts.

Detailed Definition
Guillemets frame speech or quoted material in French and other European poetic traditions; their angular shape adds visual rhythm and distinguishes voices within the poem, supporting polyphonic or dialogic structures.
Example
Example in poetry:
Guillemets (« ») enclose dialogue in French poetry: «Je t’aime», dit-elle; In translated verse, guillemets preserve original punctuation; Some poets use guillemets for nested quotations; In European-influenced poetry, «hope» adds typographic flair; Experimental poets use guillemets as visual brackets; In multilingual poems, guillemets distinguish foreign phrases.
Additional Notes
Guillemets: Guillemets (« ») are French-style quotation marks used in European poetic texts; in translation studies, preserving them signals fidelity to source typography—note their directional use and spacing conventions to avoid confusion with angle brackets or other delimiters.
Also Known As
French quotation marks angle quotation marks
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