The English Language Part 35

These remarks are appreciated when we consider the comparative characters of the cla.s.sical and the English prosody.

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CHAPTER VII.

ON ACCENT.

-- 235. In the word _tyrant_ there is an emphasis, or stress, upon the first syllable. In the word _presume_ there is an emphasis, or stress, on the second syllable. This emphasis, or stress, is called _Accent_. The circ.u.mstance of a syllable bearing an accent is sometimes expressed by a mark ('); in which case the word is said to be accentuated, _i.e._, to have the accent signified in writing.

Words accented on the last syllable--_Brigade_, _pretence_, _harpoon_, _relieve_, _deter_, _a.s.sume_, _besought_, _bereft_, _before_, _abroad_, _abode_, _abstruse_, _intermix_, _superadd_, _cavalier_.

Words accented on the last syllable but one--_An'chor_, _ar'gue_, _hasten_, _father_, _foxes_, _smiting_, _husband_, _market_, _vapour_, _barefoot_, _archangel_, _bespatter_, _disable_, _terrific_.

Words accented on the last syllable but two--_Regular_, _an'tidote_, _for'tify_, _susceptible_, _incontrovertible_.

Words accented on the last syllable but three (rare)--_Receptacle_, _regulating_, _talkativeness_, _absolutely_, _luminary_, _inevitable_, &c.

A great number of words are distinguished by the accent alone. The following list is from Nares' Orthoepy, a work to which the reader is referred.

An _attribute_. To _attribute_.

The month _August_. An _august_ person.

A _com'pact_. _Compact_ (close).

To _con'jure_ (magically). _Conjure_ (enjoin).

_Des'ert_, wilderness. _Desert_, merit.

_Invalid_, not valid. _Invalid_, a sickly person.

_Minute_, 60 seconds. _Minute_, small.

_Supine_, part of speech. _Supine_, careless, &c.

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That cla.s.s of words that by a change of accent are converted from nouns into verbs (_survey_, _survey_, _contrast_, _contrast_, &c.) will be noticed more at large in the Chapter on Derivation.

-- 236. In words like _thinking_, _foxes_, _lon'ger_, _len'gthen_, &c. we have two parts; first the original word, the root, or the radical part, as _think_, _fox_, _long_, _length_, &c.; and next, the inflectional, or the subordinate part, _-ing_, _-es_, _-er_, _-en_, &c.

To a.s.sert as a universal rule that the _accent is always on the root, and never on the subordinate part of a word_, is too much. Although in the _English_ language such an a.s.sertion (with one exception) is found true; by the French and other languages it is invalidated.

In words like _len'g-then-ing_, we have a _second_ inflectional or subordinate syllable; and the accent remains in its original place, _absolutely, but not relatively_. _It is all the farther from the end of the word._ Besides indicating the propriety of determining the place of the accent by counting from the end, rather than the beginning of a word, this circ.u.mstance indicates something else.

Imagine the English participles to be declined, and to possess cases, formed by the addition of fresh syllables. In this case the word _len'gthening_ would become a quadri-syllable. But to throw the accent to the fourth syllable from the end is inconvenient. Hence a necessity of removing it from the radical, and placing it on an inflectional syllable.

The German word _leben_ (to _live_) ill.u.s.trates the foregoing sentence.

_Leb-_ is the root, _leb-end_=_living_, from whence _lebendig_=_lively_ (with the accent on an inflectional syllable), although this last word might without inconvenience have been accented on the first syllable; that being only the third from the end.

Confusion between the radical and inflectional syllables of a word, arising from the situation of the accent, may work the deterioration of a language.

-- 237. In _trant_ and _presume_, we deal with single words; and in each _word_ we determine which _syllable_ is accented. {169} Contrasted with the sort of accent that follows, this may be called a _verbal_ accent.

In the line,

Better for _us_, perhaps, it might appear,

(POPE'S _Essay on Man_, I. 169.)

the p.r.o.noun _us_ is strongly brought forward. An especial stress or emphasis is laid upon it, denoting that _there are other beings to whom it might not appear_, &c. This is collected from the context. Here there is a _logical_ accent. "When one word in a sentence is distinguished by a stress, as more important than the rest, we may say that it is _emphatical_, or that an _emphasis_ is laid upon it. When one syllable in a word is distinguished by a stress, and more audible than the rest, we say that it is accented, or that an accent is put upon it. Accent, therefore, is to syllables what emphasis is to sentences; it distinguishes one from the crowd, and brings it forward to observation."--(Nares' Orthoepy, Part II. Chap. I.)

-- 238. Accent plays an important part in determining the nature of certain compound words--For this, see the Chapter on Composition.

It also plays an important part in determining the nature of the English metres--See Prosody.

Thirdly (the subject of the present section), it plays an important part in all systems of orthography.

The quotation from Professor Lee's Hebrew Grammar, in p. 149, is referred to; and a particular attention to a somewhat difficult subject is requisite.

The _u_ in the word _monument_ is what a cla.s.sic would call _short_.

The second _syllable_ in the word _monument_ is what a cla.s.sical scholar would call _short_. The vowel is _short_, and the syllable taken altogether is _short_. Herein it agrees with the first syllable _mon-_. It differs, however, from the syllable _mon-_ in being dest.i.tute of an accent, _monument_. With the third syllable _-ment_, it agrees in the eyes of an Englishman, but differs in the eyes of a scholar. The vowels _u_ and _e_ are equally short, and, as the Englishman measures by the vowel {170} the syllables _-u_ and _-ment_ are both short. Not so, however, with the scholar. He measures by the syllable and determines that the _e_, although naturally a short vowel, is made _long_ by position. However, in being each dest.i.tute of an accent the syllables _-u_ and _-ment_ agree. Be it remarked a second time that the accent in _monument_ lies on the first syllable.

Now the _-u_ in _monument_ although _short_, is not _dependent_.

If, however, the syllable _-nu_ take an accent; that is, if the place of the accent be removed from the first to the second syllable, the vowel _u_ still being kept short, we have a word which we spell thus, _monumment_.

Now the _u_ in _monumment_ is not only short, but dependent. It is upon this effect of an accent that the quotation from Lee's Hebrew Grammar, p.

149, especially bears.

And now two questions arise:--1. How is it that the accent has the effect of rendering such a syllable as the _u_ in _monumment_ dependent? 2. Why do we in spelling such a syllable double the consonant?

An accent falling upon a syllable must, of necessity, do one of two things: it must affect the vowel, or it must affect the consonant. If it affect the vowel, the vowel becomes the predominant part of the syllable, as in _monooment_; but, if it affect the consonant, the consonant becomes the predominant part of the syllable, as _monum'ment_.

In words like _monumment_ the consonant is, strictly speaking, as single as it is in _monument_, or _monooment_. Its _absolute_ sound is the same. Not so its _relative_ sound. This is exaggerated by two circ.u.mstances:--1, The comparative shortness of the vowel _u_; 2, the fact of the accent falling on it. The increased relative importance of the letter _m_ in the word _monumment_ is mistaken for a reduplication of the sound. This is the reason why in most languages the shortness of a vowel is expressed by the doubling of the consonant following; this doubling being no true reduplication of the sound, but a mere orthographical conventionality.

-- 239. Accent and quant.i.ty, as may have been collected from pp. 164-167, do _not_ coincide. Nothing shows this more {171} clearly than words like the adjective _august_, and the substantive _August_ (the month), where the quant.i.ty remains the same, although the accent is different. The following quotation from Mr. Guest's English Rhythms is made for the sake of four things:--

1. Of showing that the generality of writers have the credit of confusing accent with quant.i.ty--

2. Of showing that there is a reason for such a confusion having existed--

3. Of indicating the propriety of the expressions in italics--It is not stated that the consonant _c_ is doubled, but that it is added to the first syllable. The difference lies, not in its reduplication, but in its distribution.

4. Of taking a slight exception--A syllable (accented or unaccented) must be either independent or dependent; if the latter, then in most immediate contact with the consonant that follows.

"Besides the increase of loudness, and the sharper tone which distinguishes the accented syllable, there is also a tendency to dwell upon it, or, in other words, to lengthen its quant.i.ty. We cannot increase the loudness or the sharpness of a tone without a certain degree of muscular action: and to put the muscles in motion requires time. It would seem that the time required for producing a perceptible increase in the loudness or sharpness of a tone is greater than that of p.r.o.nouncing some of our shorter syllables. If we attempt, for instance, to throw the accent on the first syllable of the word _become_, we must either lengthen the vowel, and p.r.o.nounce the word _bee-come_, _or add the adjoining consonant to the first syllable, and so p.r.o.nounce the word_ _bec-ome_. We often find it convenient to lengthen the quant.i.ty even of the longer syllables, when we wish to give them a very strong and marked accent. Hence, no doubt, arose the vulgar notion, that accent always lengthens the quant.i.ty of a syllable.

"It is astonishing how widely this notion has misled men, whose judgment, in most other matters of criticism, it would be very unsafe to question. Our earlier writers, almost to a man, confound accent with quant.i.ty."--B. i. C. iv.