VARIATION OF ACCENT. 33 



Thus holy day, in which day is the main and holy the subordi- 

 nate modifying term, has become holiday. Though the parts 

 holi and day may to a limited degree still be significant to the 

 English speaker, yet the paramount accentual law is so strong 

 that it operates upon the compound as soon as it becomes one 

 word. On the other hand, the word outside is vacillating ; 

 both components are intelligible ; sometimes we hear out' side, 

 sometimes outside' ; often the choice between the two seems 

 merely euphonic or rhythmic. As an adverb or preposition, 

 perhaps we may detect a tendency to preserve the accent on 

 the syllable side, as in ''he stands outside' . " As a noun or 

 adjective, however, the accent tends toward the first syllable ; 

 we say ''the out' side of the hojise.'' This vacillation will 

 adjust itself to phonetic law and significant needs, just how 

 is beyond the scope of this article to predict. Here we simply 

 note the vacillation as authorized by the lexicographer. 



This purely phonetic tendency, however, is limited by the 

 number and weight of the syllables thereby left unaccented. 

 It is difficult to say per' eynptorily and present speakers are 

 introducing peremp' torily . This tendency is also subject to 

 restraint where a word such as record, adopted from another 

 language with the accent on the last syllable, comes to be 

 used also as a noun. The verb often retains the old accent, 

 as record' , while the noun follows the accentual tendency and 

 shifts its accent, as rec ord. This persistence of the accent at 

 or toward the end of the verb probably represents a need for 

 something to distinguish it from other parts of speech, a need 

 only felt now when its peculiar inflections have almost entirely 

 disappeared in English.* 



In both record' , the verb, compared with red ord, the noun, 

 and outside' , the adverb, compared with out' side, the noun, the 

 law of the significant accent, as first above mentioned, asserts 

 itself again and opposes the general phonetic tendency. In 



*See "Phonetic Characteristics of the English Verb," Proceedings 

 of the Delaware County Institute of Science, Volume IV, page 23. 



