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his " EfTriy on the Profodios of the Greek and Lntin Im- 

 giuge?," maintains, tliat the marks of tlic accents were in- 

 troduced in riic writing of the Greek l:uir;uage feme time 

 before the commencement of the Cluiliian :era, and that 

 they exhibit the tnie fpeaking tones of tlie language ; fuch 

 as were uled by the G reeks ihcmfelves, when it was a livin-r 

 language, fpi;ken in it.i purity. This writer ably refut« 

 the fyllcin of Mr. Primatt, who (in his " Aecentus Redivivi," 

 pubhlhcd in 1764,) is an advocate for t!\e antiquity of the 

 accents, and who defends the accented pronunciation of 

 Greek profe ; whillt he agrees with the oppofers of the 

 Greek accent*, that they are not calculated to regnlnte the 

 recitation of verfe. According to Mr. P. verfc and profe 

 were pronounced, by the ancient Greeks, by two diflerent 

 rules : the one, by Uie rule of the Latin accent, which he, 

 as well as molt others who difufe the Greek accents, confi- 

 iler as an univerfal rule of quantity, or metrical recitation : 

 the other, by the proper accents of the Greek language. 

 He is thus reduced to the neceillty of adopting the ind;-fen- 

 fible hypot'ietis; that it is the nature of the acute accent to 

 lengthen the fyllable on which it falls, and yet, with evi- 

 dent inconi"ilKiicy, he admits, tint, in muilc, length of I'ound 

 and acuterels of tone are not always united. The learned 

 prelate, juil mentioned, condemns the ruL', vvhich has been 

 fanftioned by fome of the claiTical fcholar; of our two uni- 

 verlities, that we are to read by accent in profe and quantity 

 in verfe ; and he obferves, that it is not very probable, that 

 any people fhould have had two pronunciations efTentially 

 different, one for p.ofe, and another for verfe. He equally 

 condemns the pofition, that profe as well as verfe in Greek 

 mull be read by quantity, that is, as he fays, by the 

 Latin accent, and thinking that the Greek accentual 

 Inarks exp'^efs, as we have already faid, the true fpeaking 

 tones of the language, he propofes rules of recitation, on 

 the fuppofition that tone was not always laid on connecled 

 words, where the accentual marks appear ; whofe pofition, 

 however, was not changed, to prevent the confufion which 

 would follow from making the pofition of the written mark 

 different in connefted from what it is in ifolated words ; and 

 he cenfures the printing of books unaccented. He alfo 

 maintains, that, though in placing accent, regard is had to 

 quantity, eiiphotiii gniiia, and though it may therefore be a 

 fymptom of quantity, it is never a caufe of it, and never 

 creates it ; and he calls the opinion of Mr. Primatt and 

 others, that the acute accent lengthens the tone of the fylla- 

 ble on which it falls, a common prejudice. In order to pre- 

 vent accent from intcTfering v.'ilh quantity, he propotes to 

 tranfpofe it : as in the line, M?inv aiih. Ssi rtuXiia^Ei; 'A;ti.\ii^, 

 the word A;^A^®' muft be pronounced 'A;^iXii'2^. 



An ingenious writer, viz. Mr. A. Browne, in his ob- 

 fervations upon Greek accjnts, publiihed in the Irifh Tranf- 

 aftions, vol. vii. p. 359, &e. profefTes, that he never could 

 affent to a pofition fo contradiftory to the teftimony of his 

 ear, a.-> that of the aeute accent not lengthening the fyllnble 

 on which it fal's ; and that his mind was much impreffed by 

 an obfervation of Mr. Primatt, that it is one of the extraor- 

 dinary powers of the acute accent, even to change the real 

 quantity, and alfo with his affertion, that the opinion of 

 Meff. De Port Royal, viz. that the accent only raifes the 

 voice without giving any duration in pronouncing, is erro- 

 neous. Neverthelels, he is difpofcd to acquiefce in the fen- 

 timent, that the accents denote only tone, or elevation and 

 deprefiion of the voice. This writer, conceiving it of im- 

 portance to afcertain the pronunciation of the modern 

 Gietks, and their mode of ufmg the accents, made fome 

 attempts for this purpcfe. The importance of this inquiry 

 is obvious, bccaufe the Greek is at this day a living lan- 



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guage ; whereas the Latin has in this rcfptfl been exdnft 

 for 1200 years. 



The refult of his inquiiy, after convcrfing with forr.e 

 modern Greeks, was, that tin y have not two pronuncialion* 

 for profe and verfe, and that in both tht y read by accent. 

 But they make accent the caufe of quantity, fo as to govern 

 and controul it ; and lluy make the fyllable long on whicit 

 the acute accent falls, and they allow the acute <»cetrt to 

 change the real quantity. They pronounced ».S',»-r3, Jhort, 

 and av5,«Ti» long, with a marked attention to the alteration 

 of the accent with the variety of the cafe. Iiillead of 

 KxXnjjL'fx, they faid kxMjj'.^x, and for S-i',a1r; they pronounced 

 Zuy.fo.'iri;, He was affurcd by them, that verfe at well :.s 

 profe was read by accent, and not by quantity, and thejr 

 exemplified thdr mode of reading by reciting fevcral lines of 

 Homer. Our author concludes, upon the whole, that the 

 ancient Greeks as well as the modem read both verfc and 

 profe by atccnt,and that they allowed the accents to controul 

 and alt IT the quantity. Dneier, Pcarcc, and Clarke admit, 

 that they read profe by accent, not by quantity : and the 

 learned Prelates, to whofe opinion and writings we h.ivc re- 

 ferred, contend that they could not have had a diflcrcnt 

 mode of reading profe and verfe. 



To ihcfe two propofitioHS Mr. B. accedes, and the com- 

 bination of them confirms his opinion. He diffents, how- 

 ever, from the inferences deduced from them by their advo- 

 cates, viz. that verfe is not to be read by accent, as the drR, 

 mentioned gentlemen maintain, or as the Prelates athrm, 

 that, though it is, its quantity is not thereby affeiltd. 

 Our author adds, that the modern Greeks ufe for accents 

 the word ojsx, thus confirming the opinion, that there is 

 properly no accent but the acute, the grave being the nega- 

 tion of accent ; and that the word •s-^-cs-iJiii in the ancietit 

 Greek language, is the term ufed (ur accents ; which word, 

 when tranflated into Latin, is accinlus or adcnntvs, implying 

 elevation of voice, or a kind of fong, fuperadckd or raifcd 

 in the common tone of the voice, and cannot be applied to 

 the grave, which is the negation of any departure from the 

 ufual level. He is of opinion, that the cireumflance which 

 has been mentioned as the peculiarity of the Englilh, viz. 

 that we always prolong the found of the fyllable in which 

 the acute accent falls, is true with regard to every nation 

 upon earth. It is true of the modern Italians and modern 

 Greeks. In the Englilh language, quantity is not affefted, 

 becaufe quantity and accent always agree. The cafe is the 

 fame, as Sir William Jones has (hewn, among the Perfians ; 

 and he obferves, with refptft to its pofition, that the Per- 

 fians, like the French, ufnally accent the lall fyllable of the 

 word. We (hall here add a remark, though not immedi- 

 ately connecled with the fiibit A of this article, fi'ggtlled to 

 Mr. B. by his converfation with the modem Greeks, that 

 we are much mitlaken in our idea of the fuppofed lofty 

 found of •770^1 Ja'jiV,?oio ^a>,'x(T(Tr\!. ; as the Borderers on the coall 

 of the Archipelago take their ideas from the gentle laving of 

 the Ihore by a fummcr wave, and not from the xoaring of a 

 winter ocean ; and they accordingly pronounced it Pofyphlif- 

 I'co Thnlaffis. 



On the fubjec^ of Greek accents we may refer to tht 

 Port Royal Gr. Gram. vol. ii. p. 288, &c. l.abb.xi Rc- 

 gulx Accentuum, Paris \Gcj7,. Lamberfi Bos Reguhr Ac- 

 centiuim 17.^3- Morell's Tliefaurus Grrcx Poefeos, an 

 edition of which was printed at Venice in 1767. Frankhn 

 dc Tonis. Poller, ubi fupra, Primatt, &c. &e. 



The ufe of accents to prevent ambiguities is moft re- 

 markably perceived in fome eailern languages, particulariy 

 the Siamefc and Chinefe. The Chintfe only reckon four 

 accents ; for which the miiiionaries ufe the following marks 



