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XIII.—On the Place and Power of Accent in Language
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 January 2013
Extract
On the subject of accent and quantity as elements of human speech, there has been such an immense amount of confusion, arising from vague phraseology, that in renewing the discussion nothing seems more necessary than to start with a careful and accurate definition of terms; and that a definition not taken from books, and the dumb bearers of a dead tradition, but from the living facts of nature, and the permanent qualities belonging to articulated breath. Now, if we observe accurately the natural and necessary affections of words in human discourse, considered merely as a succession of compact little wholes of articulated breath, without regard to their signification, we shall find that all the affections of which they are capable amount to four. Either (1), the mass of articulated breath which we call a word, is sent forth in a comparatively small volume, as in the case of a common gun, or it is sent forth in large volume, as in the case of a Lancaster gun; this is a mere affair of bulk, in virtue of which alone it is manifest that any word rolled forth from the lungs of a Stentor must be a different thing from the same mass of sound emitted from a less capacious bellows. In common language this difference is marked by the words loud and low.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , 1871 , pp. 269 - 312
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- Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1871
References
page 270 note * A Key to the Classical Pronunciation of Greek and Latin Proper Names; with Observations on the Greek and Latin Accent and Quantity. By Walker, John. London, 1827Google Scholar.
page 275 note * Elements of Greek Accentuation, from the German. London : Whitaker. 1831Google Scholar.
page 277 note * Rep. ii. 373, B.
page 278 note * This is one among half-a-dozen reasons for the general want of success in our English hexametrical experiments.
page 284 note * Theodosius, Goettling, p. 61; κρουστικοτέρα γιγνομένη ἡ λέξις ὀξύνϵται, Schol. Dionys. Thrax. Bekker, ii. p. 690.
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page 290 note * Havercamp's, Sylloge. Ludg. Bat., 1836. Vol. i. p. 179Google Scholar.
page 290 note † Letter to Foster in the Essay on Accent and Quantity. 3d edit. London, 1820. P. 207Google Scholar.
page 291 note * Deviribus rhythmi, p. 44. N.B.—By productas in this passage he evidently means accented.
page 294 note * “Notæ accentuum quorum omnis hodierna ratio præpostera est atque perversa.” Works by Dyce, , vol. ii. p. 362Google Scholar,
page 294 note † (1) Sarpedonii dissertatio de vera Atticorum pronunciatione. Romae, 1750. (2) Velaste dissertatio de literarum Græcarum pronunciatione. Romae, 1751.
page 295 note * On this notable inconsistency of those champions of quantity who denounce accent, Mr Foster is justly severe; ch. x., on accent-quantity.
page 295 note † On this point he produces a remarkable passage from Suidas, in voce ὀξύ, vol. ii. p. 1136. Bernhardy.
page 297 note * On the Prosodies of the Greek and Latin Languages. Lond. 1796. The author's name was not given on the title page.
page 300 note * These extracts are taken from an historical review of the opinions of scholars about accents in Wagner's, “Accent Lehre.” Helmstadt, 1807Google Scholar.
page 301 note * Ch. xiii. De accentu.
page 301 note † “Si quis igitur vestrum ad accuratam Grœcarum litterarum scientiam aspirat, is probabilem sibi accentuum rationem quam maturrime comparet in propositoque perstet, scurrarum dicacitate et stultorum derisione immotus.”
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page 302 note * A Practical Introduction to Greek Accentuation. By Chandler, H. W., M.A. Oxford, 1862Google Scholar.
page 302 note † On a Metrical Latin Inscription, copied by MrBlakesley, , at Cirta.—“Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society,” vol. x. part 2. 1861Google Scholar.