The Dutch Emphasis

Besides its sibling, Afrikaans, and cousin, Danish, Dutch is the only language that possesses an ingeniously simple way of expressing emphasis graphically: it places the acute accent above the main vowel of the word being emphasised. This obliterates the need for italics, used in many languages to highlight a word or part of a statement. Not all languages can afford the Dutch tactic: the acute accent in those either is part of a different sound (cf. French *é* vs. *e*) or serves to lengthen an otherwise short vowel (cf. Czech/Slovak/Hungarian *á*, *é*, *í*, *ó*, *ú* vs. *a*, *e*, *i*, *o*, *u*)!