--- On Wed, 5/9/12, Michael Everson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> > But the situation vis a vis òther Englishes in the US is every bit as 
> > bad.
> 
> Off-topic orthographic query... are you using the grave
> accent on òther as a stress mark, or did it slip over from
> the vis à vis?

We jùst had a discussion on this perhaps a month ago! I learned it from
Jan. In stead of using stars or all caps or underlines for emphasis, it
is apparently a Dutch practice to use accented vowels to denote emphasis.
I thought this was a rather more elegant alternative to the usual and
have been doing this for probably about 10 years now. 

Me I use acute and grave accents depending on whether the stressed vowel
is "long" or "short":

gáte; fàther; cát
reéd; rèd
síte; sìt
móde; mòd
múte; mùtt

Whatever the accent mark, it always falls on the second vowel of a
double letter or diphthong: eàrth; groóve. So, Dutch origin, tailored to
English.

I don't accent "vis a vis" or any other foreign word that, in its own
foreign context, requires an accent mark or a special letter because I
am writing an English word in an English context. I would only write
"vis à vis" si j'écrivisse en Français and I don't do that very bloody
often. The only other time I would do that is in a highly formal context
in English -- a thesis or a formal paper of some sort. And then, I'd
probably also write it in italics. Just to show it's foreignitude.

Padraic