Society for Pure English Tract 4 | Page 8

French influence. Words of more than two syllables with a single consonant before the termination throw the stress back and shorten a long penultima, as 'ignorant', 'president', 'confident', 'adjutant'. Where there are two heavy consonants, the stress remains on the penultima, as 'consultant', 'triumphant', even when one of the consonants is not pronounced, as 'reminiscent'. In some cases the Latinists seem to have deliberately altered the natural pronunciation. Thus Gower has 'ápparaúnt', but the word became 'appárent' before Shakespeare's time, and later introductions such as 'adherent' followed it. What right 'adjacent' has to its long vowel and penultimate stress I do not know, but it cannot be altered now.
STEMS ENDING IN -ATO AND -UTO. These are mostly past participles, but many of them are used in English as verbs. It must be admitted that the disyllabic words are not wholly constant to a principle. Those verbs that come from _-latum_ consistently stress the last vowel, as 'dilate', 'relate', 'collate'. So does 'create', because of one vowel following another. Of the rest all the words of any rank have the stress on the penultima, as 'vibrate', 'frustrate', 'mígrate', 'cástrate', 'púlsate', 'vácate'. Thus Pope has
The whisper, that to greatness still too near, Perhaps, yet vibrates on his Sov'reign's ear,
and Shelley
Music, when soft voices die, Vibrates in the memory.
There are, however, verbs of no literary account which in usage either vary in the stress or take it on the latter syllable. Such are 'locate', 'orate', 'negate', 'placate', and perhaps 'rotate'. With most of these we could well dispense. 'Equate' is mainly a technical word. Dictionaries seem to prefer the stress on the ultima, but some at least of the early Victorian mathematicians said 'équate', and the pronunciation is to be supported. Trisyllabic verbs throw the stress back and shorten the penultima, as 'dés[)o]late', 'súff[)o]cate', 'scínt[)i]llate'. Even words with heavy double consonants have adopted this habit. Thus where Browning has (like Milton and Cowper)
I the Trinity illústrate Drinking water'd orange pulp, In three sips the Arian frustrate. While he drains his at one gulp,
it is now usual to say 'íllustrate'.
Adjectives of this class take as early a stress as they can, as 'órnate', 'pínnate', 'délicate', 'fórtunate'. Nouns from all these words throw the accent back and shorten or obscure all but the penultimate vowel, as 'ignorance', 'evaporation'.
STEMS IN -IA. Here even disyllables shorten the penultima, as 'copy', 'province', while longer words throw the stress back as well as shorten the penultima, as 'injury', 'colony', while 'ignominy' almost lost its penultimate vowel, and therefore threw back the stress to the first syllable. Shakespeare frankly writes the word as a trisyllable,
Thy ignomy sleep with thee in the grave.
Milton restored the lost syllable, often eliding the final vowel, as in
Exile, or ignominy, or bonds, or pain.
Even with heavy consonants we have the early stress, as in 'industry'. Greek words follow the same rules, as 'agony', 'melody'. Some words of this class have under French influence been further abbreviated, as 'concord'.
Corresponding STEMS IN -IO keep the same rules. Perhaps the only disyllable is 'study'; the shortening of a stressed u shows its immediate derivation from the old French estudie. Trisyllabic examples are 'colloquy', 'ministry', 'perjury'. Many words of this class have been further abbreviated in their passage through French. Such are 'benefice', 'divorce', 'office', 'presage', 'suffrage', 'vestige', 'adverb', 'homicide', 'proverb'. The stress in 'divórce' is due to the long vowel and the two consonants. A few of these words have been borrowed bodily from Latin, as 'odium', 'tedium', 'opprobrium'.
STEMS IN -DO AND -TO (-SO). These words lose the final Latin syllable and keep the stress on the vowel which bore it in Latin. The stressed vowel, except in _au_, _eu_, is short, even when, as in 'vivid', 'florid', it was long in classical Latin. This, of course, is in accord with the English pronunciation of Latin. Examples are 'acid', 'tepid', 'rigid', 'horrid', 'humid', 'lurid ', 'absurd', 'tacit', 'digit', 'deposit', 'compact', 'complex', 'revise', 'response', 'acute'. Those which have the suffix _-es_ prefixed throw the stress back, as 'honest', 'modest'. Those which have the suffix _-men_ prefixed also throw the stress back, as 'moment', 'pigment', 'torment', and to the antepenultima, if there be one, as 'argument', 'armament', 'emolument', the penultimate vowel becoming short or obscure. In 'temperament' the tendency of the second syllable to disappear has carried the stress still further back. We may compare 'Séptuagint', where u becomes consonantal. An exception for which I cannot account is 'cemént', but Shakespeare has 'cément'.
STEMS IN -T[=A]T. These are nouns and have the stress on the antepenultima, which in Latin bore the secondary stress. They of course show the usual shortening of the vowels with the usual exceptions. Examples are 'charity', 'equity', 'liberty', 'ferocity', 'authority', and with long antepenultima 'immunity', 'security', 'university'. With no vowel before the penultima the long quality is,