The robúrica tilde is one that goes over the closed vowel when it is tonic and is preceded or followed by an open vowel. The tilde is a mark that indicates the greatest voice force in a syllable. Its use is quite restricted, therefore it is not used in most of the words.
On the other hand, a stressed vowel is the nucleus of a stressed syllable, that is, the one that is perceived as the most prominent within a word. This kind of tilde is also known as an absolute tilde or a hyatic tilde.
Roburic tilder example
Grammatical norm of the robúrica tilde
The particular combination of a closed or weak vowel (i, u) stressed and an open or strong vowel (a, e, o) forms a hiatus. When two contiguous vowels are pronounced in two different syllables, a hiatus occurs.
The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) defines the syllable as a unit of the language composed of one or more articulated sounds grouped around the loudest, generally a vowel.
The purpose of the roburic tilde is to break the diphthong so that they are pronounced in two strokes of the voice (two syllables).
The norm expresses that, without exception, any hiatus that is formed by a strong vowel and a weak tonic must be marked, regardless of the order of the vowels.
The possible combinations would be ía, íe, ío, úa, úe and úo when the open vowel goes first, and aí, eí, oí, aú, eú and oú when it goes later.
It must be taken into consideration that the letter h does not break the hiatus, therefore the same rule must be applied in these cases. Likewise, a hiatus can occur with two equal vowels, or two open vowels.
But in those cases the general rules of accentuation are used. These general rules are also taken into account when the tonic element is the open vowel.
Examples of robúrica t ilde
Below are two excerpts from works by Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez. The blush accents are underlined for identification.
1-Many years later, in front of the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía had to remember that remote afternoon when his father took him to see the ice.
Macondo was then a village of twenty houses of mud and cañabrava built on the bank of a river with clear waters that rushed down a bed of polished stones, white and huge as prehistoric eggs. The world was so recent that many things lacked names, and to mention them you had to point your finger at them.
(Excerpt from One Hundred Years of Solitude)
2-Sierva María never understood what became of Cayetano Delaura, why she did not return with her basket of beauty from the portals and her insatiable nights. On May 29, out of breath for more, she dreamed of the window of a snowy field, where Cayetano Delaura was never and would never be.
On her lap she had a bunch of golden grapes that would sprout again as soon as she ate them. But this time he did not pluck them one by one, but two by two, barely breathing from the desire to beat the bunch to the last grape.
(Excerpt from Of love and other demons)
References
- Guitart, JM (2004). Sound and sense: theory and practice of the pronunciation of contemporary Spanish with audio CD. Washington: Georgetown University Press.
- Avila, F. (2002). Where does the tilde go? Bogotá: Editorial Norma.
- Correct spelling of the Spanish language (2012). Vecchi Language School. Barcelona: De Vecchi Ediciones.
- Syllable. (s / f). Royal Spanish Academy. Usual online dictionary. Recovered from dle.rae.es.
- I founded. (2016). Second illustrated and delightful compendium of everything you ever wanted to know about the Spanish language. Penguin Random House Editorial Group.
- García Gutiérrez, JI, Garrido Nombela, R. and Hernández de Lorenzo, N. (2003). Book of style. Madrid: Comillas Pontifical University.