56 



somewhat problematical, but it very likely was not an accent 

 of stress as in English. 



The chief difficulty encountered through accentuation is the 

 concealment of the derived meaning of the term. In many 

 generic names, and in some specific ones also, the connecting 

 syllable between two roots carries the accent, as indicated in 

 our current manuals. Since the English custom joins the two 

 adjacent consonants with the accented vowel and slurs the re- 

 maining vowels in pronunciation, the actual meaning of the 

 two roots is completely hidden. Thus Ammo-phila (sand-loving) 

 becomes Am-moph'-ila; Echino-chloa (hedgehog-grass) becomes 

 Eck'-inock'-loa; Dryo-pteris (wood-fern) is Dry-op' -teris or even 

 Dri-yop'-teris, introducing a sound of p which is silent in Pteris. 

 Numerous other similar cases will occur at once to the reader. 

 In each of these the significant syllables of the roots, which by 

 separate accents make plain and prominent the derived meaning 

 of the name, are slighted or slurred in favor of the meaningless 

 connecting syllable. Would it not be more expressive to a stu- 

 dent, who has learned the word xylem and the root xanth in 

 plant anatomy and physiology, to say Zan'-tho-xy'-lum instead 

 of the meaningless Zan-thox' -ylum? One of my own students, 

 hearing the name of a tree pronounced Quercus bi'-color, said 

 "Now I know what that name means, two colors. I always 

 heard it pronounced bickeler before." 



There are of course numerous instances of similar words in 

 ordinary speech, such as thermometer, barometer, and kilometer. 

 Such words are now beyond possibility of change, except 

 through the slow evolution of the language, but how much 

 more expressive are thermo-meter , baro-meter, and kilo-meter. 

 The Germans certainly understand the classics as well as we do, 

 and probably much better on the average, yet they seem to get 

 along well with thermo-meter and kilo-meter. 



Another and particularly unfortunate result of the classical 

 system in determining accent is seen in its application to vari- 

 ous commemorative names. Oakes and Hales, with monosyllab- 

 ic names of good English origin, are commemorated in genera 

 which we are asked to pronounce O-kees'-ia and Ha-lees'-ia. 

 Harper' -ia and N el-son' -i are not so bad, but Rosy-eye (Rosei) 

 reminds one of a certain disease and Jesupi is almost intoler- 

 able, either as Je-stip'-i or Je-soop'-i. By the way, was there a 



