What do accent marks actually do?

Question

What do accent marks actually do?

I put your question in as text for you. You had it as the title, and only had the letter "s" in the text box. - Goyo, Oct 28, 2009

Answer 1

For one thing- They help you distinguish some words from other words that are spelled the same. For instance-

está = he is, she is, you are

esta= this

For another thing, they help you pronounce words correctly when the emphasis of the word is on a syllable that doesn't follow the normal rules of pronunciation.

Answer 2

I have a newspaper article about exactly this question. Serious consideration is being given by the RAE to changing Spanish so that the "unnecessary" accents be dropped. I intend typing it out and putting on the forum here for discussion. It will take me a long time if I can't find it on the internet. The article was written by Andrés Oppenheimer and printed in a Bolivian newspaper called " Los Tiempos" on Wednesday 28th October 2009. The first word in the article was MADRID so I assume it originated in Spain.

PS. I have found that the article is Copyright of "The Miami Herald y El Nuevo Herald so I can't really post it here.

The title of the article is "El futuro de la lengua español"