CHAPTER XIII. ACCENTUATION. ACCENT is the elevation of voice, with which one syllable of 296 a word is pronounced, in comparison with the more subdued tone with which the other syllables are pronounced1. Monosyllables always have the accent. Dissyllables have the accent on the penultimate syllable, unless they are enclitic. Words of more than two syllables have the accent on the antepenultimate, if the penultimate syllable is short; on the penultimate, if it is long. The Romans distinguish between an acute and a circumflex accent. The circumflex stands only on monosyllables which have long vowels; and, in words of more than one syllable, on the penultimate, if that have a long vowel, and the final syllable have a short vowel. If the acute be marked by a over the vowel; the circumflex by a^, the above rules may be illustrated by the following examples: Monosyllables; áb, mél, fél; árs, párs, níx, fáx; spês, flôs, môs, lis; môns, fôns, lûx. Dissyllables; déus, cítus, árat; déo, Cáto, árant; sóllers, póntus, pónto, lúnā; lûnă, Rômă, vidit. Polysyllables; Sérgius, fúscina, crédere; Sérgio, fúscinas, créderent, Metellus, fenéstra; Metéllo, fenéstræ; Sabíno, prædíves; Sabinus, Române, amicus, amâre. All compound words, whether their parts can or cannot be used 297 as separate words, are accented according to the regular rules; e.g. anhélo, rédimo; úndique, ítaque (therefore); ítidem, útinam, póstaac, póstmodo, intrórsus, quicúmque, jamdudum, exadvérsum, qúodsi, fórsan, &c. So respública or rês pública. 1 This subdued tone is called by grammarians the grave accent. The principal rules of Latin accentuation are given by Quintilian, I. 5. 22-31. A few words, called enclitics, always appended to other words, 293 caused, according to the Roman grammarians, the accent to fall on the last syllable of the word to which they were attached. These are -que (and), -ne, -ve, -ce, -met, -pte, -dum, and also the separable words, quando, inde; e.g. itáque (and so), utíque (and as), illíce, hicíne, mihímet, respicédum, éxinde, écquando, &c. So also que in pleráque. In the case of many words called enclitics (owing to their own quantity) the accentuation is the same, whether they be considered as enclitics proper, or parts of a compound; e. g. quandóquidem, scilicet, quibúslibet, quantúmvis, &c. Prepositions and adverbs used as prepositions (e. g. intra) were 299 regarded as closely attached to the word which they precede, and belong to. In inscriptions they are frequently written as one word with their nouns. The Roman grammarians considered them to have no accent when thus preceding their noun or a word (e.g. adjective or genitive case) dependent on it; e.g. ad éas, adhûc, in fóro, virtútem propter pátris, &c. But if they follow their noun, they are said to retain their own accent; e.g. quæprópter, quácúm, but cum after personal pronouns is said to be enclitic; e.g. nobiscum. (L. Müller, resting on the usage of dactylic poets as to the cæsura, &c., confines this to the words me, te, se, nos, vos, in company with dissyllabic prepositions in -ter, -tra; e. g. inter nós, intra sé). So also the relative was unaccented, the interrogative accented; e.g. quo díe, on which day: quô díe? on which day? Apparent exceptions to the general rules are some words in 300 which the accent remains, notwithstanding the loss of a syllable; e.g. I. Some words where the accent is on what is now the last syllable; e. g. illic, prodûc, tantôn, bonân, satín, nostrâs, for illice, produce, tantône, bonâne, satísne, nostrâtis (§ 418), &c. 2. Some where the accent is on the penult instead of on the antepenult; e.g. (gen. and voc.) Valéri, Vergili, &c. (for Valerie, Valerii; Vergilie, Vergilii; &c.); and the verbs (really not complete compounds) calefácis, mansuefácit, &c. It would appear1, though little reference is made to such a doc- 301 trine in the Roman grammarians, that words of more than three syllables must have frequently had besides the principal accent another subordinate one; e.g. numerávimus, sisterêmus, longitudo, difficultatibus had probably a subordinate accent on the first syllables. 1 See Corssen Ausspr. 11. p. 242 foll. ed. 1. The first part of a compound especially may have retained to some extent the accent which it had as a simple word; e.g. pérgrándis, præterire, vérsipéllis, úndevigínti. Λ The frequent omission or absorption of a short vowel, or of 302 a syllable which has according to the general rules the accent, leads to the inference that there must have been a tendency to put the accent nearer to the beginning of the word than the antepenultimate or penultimate syllable1. The effort to do this, and the resistance made by the heavy dragging of the unaccented syllables after it, were the cause of the omission, e.g. intellexísti became intelléxti; dehíbeo, débeo; gavídeo, gaúdeo; surripuit, súrpuit; calcâre, cálcar; armígerus, ármiger; puerítia, puértia; &c. So the weakening of the vowel in compounds; inquiro for inquæro, concludo for com-claudo, abreptus for ab raptus, is difficult to explain, so long as the affected syllable is considered as accented. Similarly the change of ille-ce to illice, illic, suggests doubts as to the truth of the doctrine respecting enclitics, given above § 298. 1 Ib. p. 321 foll. |