THE 



MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 



No. 135.] 



NOVEMBER l, 1805. [4, of Vol. 20. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 



SIR, 



I AM glad to fee the controveify re- 

 fptrfling accent and quantity revived 

 by yoiir CorrtfponJent Mr. Smith in the 

 laft Number of your valuable Magazine. — 

 The truth of many of his remarks rcCpcft- 

 ing our improper mode of reading Litln, 

 &c., is too evident to be difputed. For 

 though perhaps no nation upon earth un- 

 derftands the laws of profody better than 

 the Englifii do, yet it mull be acknow- 

 ledged that mod of our fcholnrs, by not 

 diftinguifhing the precife iengih of vowel- 

 founds and by an improper ufe of accent, 

 fyftematically err in their pronunciation 

 of four foits ot words, viz — i ft. Words 

 of two fyllables having the firft fliort, as 

 equet ; idly, Words of three fyllables 

 having the firft long and the fecond fliort, 

 as fidcra \ 3dly, Polyryllables accen'ed 

 on the antipenult, asjuveni/ibus, inlerea, 

 &c. ; and laltly, words ending in a long 

 vowel, as domini, or in a long vowel and a 

 fi gle confonaiit, as do minis Tliefe I be- 

 lieve are the only cafcs in which we are 

 accuftomed to violate quantiiy. All 

 thefe errors arife in part from the want of 

 diftinguifhing between the long and fliort 

 powers of the vowels. For, as they are 

 all of them by nature capable of being 

 either long or fliort, and as every long 

 vowel is equal to two fliort ones, this is a 

 di(tin£fion of ihe greateft importance.— 

 We are not certain in what manner the 

 ancients pronounced their vowels, whe 

 theras we do, or (which is more probable) 

 in a manner fimilar to that which pre- 

 vails on the Continent ; but of this we 

 may be infallilily fuie, that ihey did not 

 allow a long found to be given to a fliort 

 vowel, or a (hort found to a long one.— 

 In whatever mode therefore we may found 

 the vowels, let us not fail to pay due at- 

 tention to their quantity. 



The princip:(l Iburce of our miflakes 

 on this lubjeit is (he indiftinft and con- 

 fii(t;cl njtion which we have of accent.— 

 F'li when it (alU on a fliort fylLible, we 

 often make that fylUblelong ; and when it 

 tails on a long one we fometimcs make it 



Monthly Mac. No. 135. 



fhort. By accent is commonly meant an 

 it^us or ftrefs laid on one particular fyl- 

 lable of a woid. In this lenfe accent is 

 now and ever has been the fjme in all lan- 

 guages. It is that which conneftstwo or 

 more I'yllables together, and forms them 

 into one word, and without which fuch a 

 word cannot exift in any languige. This 

 idea was at leafl always included in the 

 acute accent of the Romans, though per- 

 haps it may not prccifely anfwer to the 

 Latin word accentus ; for pofTibly that 

 term might likewiie include in it ideas of 

 tone, &c., with which we are now unac- 

 quainted. The rules which Qu^inftiliaa 

 laid down for the acute accent have been 

 adopted by all grammarians in all fuc. 

 ceeding ages : a convincing proof that 

 they mean by accent the fame thing which 

 he meant. For if (according to the fancy of 

 fome inodern grammarians) accent is now 

 a (hmi; totally different from what it for- 

 merly was, why have they not given us a 

 different fet of rules for the rt-gulation of 

 it, and informed us at what time the alte- 

 ration took place ? 



Accent in fome degree afFefls quantity, 

 i. e. it makes the accented fyllable a little 

 longer than it would be without it. But 

 its operation is never fo great as to make 

 a fhort fyllable become long, nor does the pri- 

 vation of accent make a long fyllable become 

 fliort ; for there are degrees of time both 

 in long and fliort fyllables. All fhort fyl- 

 lables are not equally fhort, nor are alt 

 long ones equally long. Tiiis remark is 

 fully confirmed by a pafTage quoted by 

 Dr. Warner from Quinflilian: — Et longis 

 /on^iores, £f brevibus funt brcviores Jjl- 

 laha. 



Q^iinclilian and all fucceeJing gramma- 

 rians inform us that the Latin acute ac- 

 cent is never laid on ihe laft fyllable of a 

 word J that in all diflyllablcs, f.nd like- 

 wile in tiifl^yllabies, having the fecond fyl- 

 lable fhort, it invariably falls on the firft 

 fyllable; and that in pol\ I'yllables having 

 the penult fliort, it lies in the antipenult. 

 In the Enelifli language d.fTyllables ac- 

 cented on the fiifl fyllable generally have 

 that fyllable Ijcg. We have therefore 

 P p very 



