What do the accute and grave acent marks indicate? I do not refer to those that govern breathing sounds (i.e., smooth-breathing and rough breathing). Also, what do the circumflex and the wierd half-circle thing indicate?
(I’m a novice myself, so do not swallow my words.)
Smyth explains that accute is a “rising” tone (greek is said to have tones, rather than stresses as Latin does), grave “falling”, and circumflex “rising and then followed by falling” tones.
(Chinese pronunciation signs have similar accent system.)
You can find some samples here:
http://www.oeaw.ac.at/kal/agp/
By “wierd half-circle thing”, if you don’t mean it “circumflex” I have no idea what you mean. (A circumflex over the breathing sign???)