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jeft. fays a lear-.cd writer, " On the Profodies of ihe Greek 

 and Latin I.anjjuai;es," it appr.us, that the acute accent, 

 which is a fhurp llroke of the voice Mpon fomc one fyllable 

 of the word, is in -truth the only pofitive tone. The grave 

 comIIIIs mcicly in a negation of this acutencfs, and is not 

 mnrkcd except it be upon the lail fyllable of certain words ; 

 but is to be underltyod upon eveiy fyllable of the word, 

 which carries neither the acute nor circumflex : and it feems 

 to amount to no more than this, that what grammarians 

 call the grave tone, confifts in a mere negation of acutenefs, 

 and of clrcumflexion, if that be different from acutenefs. 

 Accordingly, the general doftrine of accents is, that, with 

 the exception of fourteen monofyllablcs in the Greek lan- 

 guage, which carry no accent, unlcfs it be in particular 

 circumdances, and for that reafon are called a-ro;;!, or atouia, 

 feme one fyllable of evei-y word, and one fyllable o:ily, bears 

 an accent, cither acute or circumflex. 



If it be true, that the whole fyllem of pronunciation de- 

 pends upon three accents, it is no lefs true, that each of 

 thefe _three admits of foveral degrees. The acute accent, 

 for inllance, may be cither higher or lower ; may be iimply 

 acute, or very acute : and the like holds of the grave and 

 circumflex. So .that each of the three common accents is, 

 as it were, a genus including various particular fpecies ; 

 though the ancient Grammarians have not thoupht fit to 

 annex particular names and figures to all thefe differences. 

 Vander. Hardt. Arcan. Accent. Gi-^c. 1715, l2mo. 



Mr. Sheridan, in his Lcclures on Elocution, p. 38, ob- 

 ferves, that the meaning of the term accent, among the 

 ancients, was veiy different from what it is with us. They 

 dillinguiflied accents by certain inflexions of the voice like 

 mufical notes ; but the manner in which they did it muft 

 remain for ever a fecret to us ; for, with the living tongue 

 paiihed the tones alfo, which we in vain endeavour to ex- 

 plore in their viiible mai-ks. With us, the term accent de- 

 notes a peculiar mode of diftinguifhing one fyllable from the 

 reft ; and this dillinftion is made in various ways : either by 

 dwcUing longer upon one fyllable than upon the red:, or by 

 giving it a fmarter percuffion of the voice in utterance. 

 Of the firfl. of thefe we have inftances in the words glory, 

 fiilher, holy : of the laft in iatlk, hal'it, borroiv. So that 

 accent, with us, is not referred to tune, but to time ; to 

 quantity, not quality ; to the mere equable or precipitate 

 motion of the voice, not to the variation of notes or inflexions. 

 He proceeds to obferve, that the quantity depends upon 

 the feat of the accent, whether it be on the vowel or con- 

 sonant : if on the vowel, the fyllable is neceffarily long, as 

 it makes the vowel long i if on the confonant, it may be 

 either long or fliort, according to the nature of the confo- 

 rant, or the time taken up in dwelling upon it. By 

 changing the feat of the accent in the inftances above fpe- 

 cified, we fliould change their quantity : if, inftead of glory 

 w- fhould fay glor'y, inftead of ftther, fat'her, inftead of 

 h'jly, hol'y, the firft fyllables would become fliort : and, on 

 the otlier hand, if we were to dwell on the vowels inftead of 

 the confonants in the laft inftances, they would be changed 

 from flioVt to long, as bcule for lal'tk., habit, for hah'it, and 

 biirrciu, for bot^row. This, he fays, is one of the chief 

 fources of the difl"erence between the Scotch and Englifli 

 gentlemen in the pronunciation of EngliOi : /. e. laying the 

 accent on the vowel inftead of the confonant, fo as to make 

 fyllables long that are fliort with us. He adds, it is an un- 

 erring rule, that whenever the accent is on the confonant, 

 the preceding vowl4 has a fliort found ; and there is another 

 infalhble rule in our tongue, that no vowel ever has a 

 long found in an unaccented fyllable ; and therefore, if the 



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accent were properly adjufted, it would prove a mafl-cr-key 

 to the pronunciation of our whole tongue. In another 

 place, (Art. of Reading, vol. ii.) Mr. Sheridan fays, that 

 when the feat of the accent is on a vowel, the fyllable is 

 long-: when on -a confonant, fliort ; and that all unaccented 

 fyllables arc fliort. 



But the ufe of accent in our language is not confined to 

 quantity alone. It is alfo the chief mark by which words 

 are diftinguilhed from mere fyllables. The effence of a 

 word, favs this author, confifts in nccent as well as articula- 

 tion. The Greeks alfo diftinguiihed words from mere 

 fvllables by a certain tone or note annexed to each word, 

 which made their fpeech more mufical or pleafing to the 

 ear, than that of any other nation in the world. Thefe 

 tones they learned from their infancy, and they ufed them 

 with fuch accuracy, that even the vulgar among the Athe- 

 nians would have hiffcd an aftor or aclrefs from the ftage, 

 and an orator from the pulpitum, on account of a few 

 miftakes in the enunciation of thefe notes. The wonderful 

 eft'etts of the harangues of the Greek orators on the en- 

 raptured minds of their hearers were owing, in a confider- 

 able degree, to thofe artificial mufical tones, by which their 

 fvllables were fo happily diverfified. To this purpofe con- 

 fult Dionyfius Hal. de Compofitione Verborum, apud 

 Oper. tom. ii. p. 17. &c. Ed. Oxon. 1704. This har- 

 mony of utterance is not ftudied by any of the modeiTis, 

 except the Chinefe. Words are alfo diftinguiflied from 

 fvllables by making a perceptible pause at the end of 

 each word. Mr. Sheridan is of opinion, that the nioft evi- 

 dent and precife as well as the moft eafy and certain mode 

 of diftinftion, is that of accent ; and that it would con- 

 tribute moft effeftually both to utihty and to ornament. 



As to public fpeakers, who can pronounce Englifti 

 properly, the only rule neceffary to be obferved by them is 

 to lay the accent always on the fame fyllable, and the fame 

 letter of the fyllable, which they uiually do in common 

 difcourfe, and to take care not to lay any accent or ftrefs 

 upon any other fyllables. Such perfons ftiould recoiled, 

 that, in the Enghfli language, every word which confifts 

 of more fyllables than one, has one accented fyllable ; and 

 that there is feldom or never more than one fuch fyllable in 

 any Englifli word, however long. See Pronunciation. 



In the Enghlli language there is a remarkable pecuharity 

 of throwing the accent farther back ; that is, nearer the 

 beginning of the word than is done by any other nation. 

 In Greek and Latin no word is accented farther back than 

 the third fyllable from the end, or what is called the ante- 

 penult. But, in Englifli, we have many words accented on 

 the fourth, fome on tlie fifth, fyllable from the end, as 

 m'emorallci, convcnieTicy, ambulatory. See. The general effeft 

 of this praftice of haftening the accent, or placing it fo 

 near the beginning of a word, is to give a briik and fpirited, 

 but at the fame time a rapid and huiried, and not very mu- 

 fical, tone to the whole pronunciation of a people. 



The Hebrews have a grammatical, a rhetorical, and a 

 mufical accent : though the firft and laft feem, in effect, 

 to be the fame ; both being comprifed under the general 

 name of tonic accents, becaufe they give the proper tone to 

 fyllables : as the rhetorical accents are faid to be euphonic, 

 inafmuch as they tend to make the pronunciation more 

 fweet and agreeable. 



There are four euphonic accents, and twenty five tonic: 

 however, authors are not agreed as to the number of either 

 clafs. Of thefe, fome are placet^ above, and others below 

 the fyllables : the Hebrew accents ferving not only to re- 

 gulate the rifings and falhngs of the voice, but alfo to dif- 



tinguifli 



