Acento vs. Accento
I have always said and heard this word as Ah-cento, but have now heard two different native speakers of Spanish say Ah-k-cento. Is it Spanglish? Where does this come from?
Siempre he dicho y oido esta palabra como A-cento, pero de recién he oido dos hispanohablantes nativos decirla Ak-cento. Es eso Espanglish? De donde proviene?
6 Answers
No idea. The correct spelling is "acento", which is how it is pronounced. If I had to venture a theory, I'd say that people from Latin American families who are born or live in USA have heard so many times accent, that they have ended up saying "accento" instead of "acento". Bear in mind that these people probably hear more English than Spanish, they normally don't go to schools in Spanish, and they are not surrounded by people who have deep roots in the language (let alone a literary tradition). I doubt this happens far from USA or any other place with a strong English influence.
I personally have never heard of a native speaker who says "accento".
Hi SOYW. " Accento" is Italian for accent , it is possible that Argentinians have used this spelling or way of saying it because of the great Italian migration to the Argentine. this is only conjecture on my part . The word in Italian is pronounced , Aksento.
Hi, I'm spanish. The traduction of accent is acento but accento is also a word in spanish that means the sign that we put in words: qué. A lot of people confuse tese two words, thats the reason 
Funny you asked this question. I just returned from a party where I was speaking predominately in Spanish to a Chilean man and his mother for most of the night. I was using the word "acento" in a sentence and because I thought they misunderstood, I said "accento"?. They both immediately let me know I had said it correctly the first time.
Thanks guys. I was really concerned I had been saying it wrong.
