John Sargeaunt

“ The rule of Latin stress was observed as it obtained in the time of Quintilian. In the earliest Latin the usage had been other, the stress coming as early in the word as was possible. Down to the days of Terence and probably somewhat later the old rule still held good of quadrisyllables with the scansion of mŭlĭĕrĭs or mŭlĭĕrēs, but in other words had given way to the later Quintilian rule, that all words with a long unit as penultimate had the stress on the vowel in that unit, while words of more than two syllables with a short penultimate had the stress on the antepenultimate. ”

“ It is the intention of our society to offer only expert and well-considered opinion on these literary matters, which are often popularly handled in the newspapers and journals as fit subjects for private taste and uninformed prejudice: and since the Oxford Dictionary has done more fully for English what Littré did for French, our task is comparatively easy. But experts cannot be expected, all of them, to have the self-denying zeal of Émile Littré, and the worth of our tracts will probably improve with the increase of our subscribers. ”

“ The malison of Milton on their heads! If the translators of the Bible had foreseen 'Zebūlun', they would have chosen some other word than 'princes' to avoid the cacophony of 'the princes of Zebūlun'.
That these usages were familiar is evident from the pronunciation of proper, especially Biblical, names. Thus 'Bābel' and 'Băbylon', 'Nīnus' and 'Nĭneveh', were spoken as unconsciously as Mīchael' and 'Mĭchaelmas'. Nobody thought of asking the quantity of the Hebrew vowels before he spoke of 'Cāleb' and 'Bārak', of 'Gĭdeon' and 'Gĭlead', of 'Dĕborah' and 'Abĭmelech', of 'Ēphraim' and 'Bēlial'. ”

“ The penultima in English is short whether it was long or, as in 'dynamite' and 'malachite', short in Greek.
There is, however, one distinct class of Greek words in which the Latin rule is not followed. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there were scholars who rightly or wrongly treated the Greek accent as a mark of stress. It is clear that this habit led to an inability to maintain a long quantity in an unstressed syllable. Shakespeare must have learnt his little Greek from a scholar who had this habit, for he writes 'Andrónĭcus' and also
I am misánthrŏpos and hate mankind. ”

“ For the sake of simplicity it may be allowed us to ignore some distinctions rightly made by phoneticians. Thus the long initial vowel of alias is not really the same as the long initial vowel of area, but the two will be treated as identical. It will thus be possible to write of only three kinds of vowels, long, short, and obscure.
The letter or symbol a stood for two long sounds, heard in the first syllables of alias and of larva, for the short sound heard in the first syllable of stamina, and for the obscure sound heard in the last syllable of each of these last two words in English. ”

“ Every word has its history, and no word can prosper in the speech or writing of those who do not respect its inherited and unalterable associations; these cannot be got rid of by ignoring them. Littré in the preface to his dictionary claims for it this pre-eminent quality of usefulness, that it will enable his countrymen to speak and write good French by acquainting them with historic tradition, and he says that it was enthusiasm for this one purpose that sustained him in his great work. ”

“ In words of more than two syllables the antepenultimate and stressed vowel is shortened, as 'ĕmulous' [pg 16] from æmulus and in 'frĭvolous' from frīvolus, except where by the 'alias' rule it is long, as in 'egrēgious' from egrĕgius. Words coined on this analogy also follow the rules. Thus 'glabrous' and 'fibrous' have the vowels long, as in the traditional pronunciation of glabrum and fibrum, where the vowels in classical Latin were short. The stressed u being always long we have 'lugūbrious' and 'salūbrious', the length being independent of the 'alias' rule. ”

“ Words beginning with hyper- seem nowadays always to have a long y except that one sometimes hears 'hy̆perbole' and 'hy̆perbolical'. Of course both in hypo- and in hyper- the vowel is short in Greek, so that here at least the strange lengthening cannot be ascribed to the Grecians. The false theory of a long y has not affected 'cynic' or 'cynical', while 'Cyril' has been saved by being a Christian name. ”

“ It is not yet common, but such vulgarisms are apt to climb.
In times not quite so recent the word 'prophecy' has changed, not indeed its stress, but the quantity of its final vowel. When Alford wrote 'The Queen's English', every one lengthened the last vowel, as in the verb, nor do I remember any other pronunciation in my boyhood. Now the N.E.D. gives the short vowel only. Alford to his own satisfaction accounted for the long vowel by the diphthong ei of the Greek. ”

“ English. The Americans have some right to crow over us here; but their 'physician' is a long word; and though it has been good English in the sense of medicus for six hundred years, it ought by etymology to mean what physicien does in French, and physicist in modern English. Our ancestors were better off in this respect than either we or the Americans. The only native [pg 34] word to denote a practiser of the healing art is leech, which is better than the foreign 'physician' because it is shorter. ”

“ Hence, in the end, the pronunciation of Latin has become different in different countries. A scholar born in Italy has great difficulty in following a Frenchman speaking Latin. He has greater difficulty in understanding an Englishman's Latin, because in English the changes in the sounds of the letters have been greater than in any other language. Every vowel-letter has several sounds, and the normal long sound of every [pg 5] vowel-letter has no resemblance whatever to its normal short sound. ”

“ There seems, however, to be a general agreement nowadays to keep the Greek omega. As for 'protagonist' the word is so technical and is often so ludicrously misunderstood that writers on the Greek drama would do well to retain the Greek termination and say 'protagonistes'; for 'protagonist' is very commonly mistaken and used for the opposite of 'antagonist'.
Next come words beginning with hypo or hyph. In a disyllable the vowel is long by the 'apex' rule, as in 'hyphen'. In longer words it should be short. ”

“ Of these words we have a good many, both Latin and Greek. Those that came direct keep the stress on the vowel which was antepenultimate and is in English penultimate, and this vowel is short whatever its original quantity. Examples are 'aquatic', 'italic', 'Germanic'. Words that came through French threw the stress back, as 'lúnatic'. Skeat says that 'fanatic' came through French, but he can hardly be right, for the pronunciation 'fánatic' is barely three score years old. There is no inverted stress in Milton's
Fanátic Egypt and her priests. ”

“ 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'. ”

“ When heavy consonants bring the stress on to the penultima, the i is shortened, as in 'clandestĭn (e) ', 'intestĭn (e) ', and so in like disyllables, as 'doctrĭn (e) '. The modern words 'morphin (e) ' and 'strychnin (e) ', coined, the one from Morpheus and the other from the Greek name of the plant known to botanists as Withania somnifera, correctly follow 'doctrine' in shortening the i, though another pronunciation is sometimes heard. ”

“ Greek words of this class used as adjectives mostly follow the same rule, as 'sporadic', 'dynamic', 'pneumatic', 'esoteric', 'philanthropic', 'emetic', 'panegyric'. As nouns the earlier introductions threw the stress back, as 'heretic', 'arithmetic', but later words follow the adjectives, as 'emetic', 'enclitic', 'panegyric'. As for 'politic', which is stressed as we stress both by Shakespeare and by Milton, it must be under French influence, though Skeat seems to think that it came straight from Latin. ”

“ It is high time that men who love the language, who can use it deftly and forcibly, and who are acquainted with the principles and the processes of its growth, should raise the standard of independence.... ”

“ Suffix in āli. These adjectives shorten the -a and, with the usual exceptions, the preceding vowels, as 'dóctrinal', 'fílial', 'líberal', 'márital', 'medícinal', but of course by the 'alias' rule 'arbōreal' (not a classical word in Latin) and 'gēnial'. Words like 'national' and 'rational' were [pg 21] treated like trisyllables, which they now are. The stress is on the antepenultima except when heavy consonants bring it on to the penultima, as in 'sepulcral', 'parental', 'triumphal'. ”

“ The Greek πρωταγωνιστης means the actor who takes the chief part in a play—a sense readily admitting of figurative application to the most conspicuous personage in any affair. The deuteragonist and tritagonist take parts of second and third importance, and to talk of several protagonists, or of a chief protagonist or the like, is an absurdity. In the newspapers it is a rarity to meet protagonist in a legitimate sense ”

“ 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'. ”

“ When Fortune's malice
Lost her Calais.
Shakespeare, of course, spelt it 'Callis', and this form, which was first evicted by Pope, whom other editors servilely [pg 30] followed, ought to be restored to Shakespeare's text. In the pronunciation of Cato the stage regained the English diphthong in the mouth of Garrick, whose good sense was often in evidence. It is recorded that his example was not at once followed in Scotland or Ireland. If there was any Highlander on the stage it may be hoped that he gave to the vowel the true Latin sound as it appears in 'Mactavish'. ”

“ Adjectives of this type keep the Latin stress, which thus falls on the ultima, and shorten or obscure the penultimate vowel, as 'mature', 'obscure', 'severe', 'sincere', but of course 'āustere'. Of like form though of other origin is 'secure'. Nouns take an early stress, as 'áperture', 'sépulture', 'líterature', 'témperature', unless two mutes obstruct, as in 'conjécture'. ”

“ The Latin hyacinthĭnus and adamantĭnus are parallel words, yet Milton has 'hyacinthin' for the one and 'adamantine' for the other. One classification goes a little way. Thus 'human' and 'urban' must have come through French, 'humane' and 'urbane' direct from Latin. ”

“ Feasible is a good example of a word which appears in danger of being lost through incorrect and ignorant use. It can very well happen that a word which is not quite comfortable may feel its way to a useful place in defiance of etymology ”

“ The ancient appellation of the healer is so far obsolete that if I were to answer a question as to a man's profession with the words 'Oh, he is a leech', there would be some risk of being misunderstood to mean that he was a money-lender. ”

“ Is it useful? or is it merely a pretentious blundering substitute for words that are useful? Pro- in protagonist is not the opposite of anti-; -agonist is not the same as in antagonist; advocate and [pg 42] champion and defender and combatant are better words for the wrong senses given to protagonist; and protagonist in its right sense of the (not a) chief actor in an affair has still work to do if it could only be allowed to mind its own business.'
AMERICAN APPRECIATION
We are glad to reprint the following short extracts from the New York Times Book Review and Magazine, September 26, 1920. ”

“ These mostly come through French and change the suffix into -ble. Disyllables lengthen the penultima, as 'able', 'stable', 'noble', while 'mobile', as in French, lengthens its latter vowel. Trisyllables shorten and stress the antepenultima, as 'placable', 'equable', but of course u remains long, as in 'mutable'. Longer words throw the stress further back, except mere negatives, like 'implácable', and words with heavy consonants such as 'delectable'. Examples are 'miserable', 'admirable', 'intolerable', 'despicable'. ”

“ At school we used to translate ποδας ωκυς Αχιλλευς "swift-footed Achilles", and I took that to mean that Achilles was a sprinter. I suppose quick-footed would be the epithet for Makepeace.'
SPRINTER is a good word, though Sprinting Achilles could not be recommended.
[pg 37]
BRATTLE
A correspondent from Newcastle writes advocating the recognition of the word brattle as descriptive of thunder. It is a good old echo-word used by Dunbar and Douglas and Burns and by modern English writers. It is familiar through the first stanza of Burns's poem 'To a Mouse'. ”

“ As Burns happens to use bickering as his epithet for the mouse's brattle, we may take this word as another illustration of Littré's principle. The N.E.D. gives the original meaning as skirmish, and quotes Shakespeare,
If I longer stay
We shall begin our ancient bickerings,
which a man transposing the third and fourth words might say to-day without rising above colloquial speech; but there is another allied signification which Milton has in
Smoak and bickering flame ”