270 PROFESSOR BLACKIE ON THE 



accustomed to say, that the acute accent stands on syllables pronounced in an 

 elevated tone, and the grave on those pronounced with a low tone. The only 

 difference between the musical scale and the scale of articulate speech in this 

 view, is that the latter, besides being much narrower in its compass, rises or 

 sinks, not by mathematically calculated intervals, but by a mere upward or 

 downward slide, not divided by any definite intervals. The true connection of 

 these slides with the general doctrine of accent has been well set forth by Mr 

 Walker, the author of the Pronouncing Dictionary, in a separate treatise.* 

 (4). The fourth affection of articulated sound is that which is familiarly known 

 to scholars and schoolboys under the name of quantity, and signifies simply the 

 greater or less duration of time during which the sound continues to impress 

 the ear. For it is manifest that any sound may be produced either by a sudden 

 stroke, or jerk, or by a traction prolonged to any extent. In grammar a short 

 vowel corresponds to a quaver or semiquaver in music, and a long vowel to a 

 crotchet or minim, according to the ratio of the movement. 



Now it should seem to be pretty plain at the outset, to all persons whose ears 

 have been exercised in a very slight degree to discern the differences of articulate 

 sounds, that what is called accent in grammar has to do only with the second 

 and third of the above four elements, and not at all with the first or fourth ; in 

 other words, that the accent of a word is totally distinct both from the volume 

 of voice with which the word is enunciated, and the length of time during which 

 the speaker dwells on the syllable. Nevertheless, such is the confusion which 

 learned writers have introduced into this subject, that it is necessary at the very 

 outset to enter a caveat against a very prevalent notion that the placing of the 

 acute accent on a syllable, naturally or necessarily implies a prolongation of 

 the sound of the accented vowel ; or, in other words, that to accent a syllable 

 withoutmaking it long is impossible. In music no performer ever dreams that 

 the rhythmical beat on the first, we shall say, of three quavers — that is jig time — 

 necessarily turns the quaver into a crotchet. A musician making such an 

 assertion would simply be deemed drunk or mad ; nor does it make the slightest 

 difference in the quantity of the note receiving the musical accent, whether in 

 respect of elevation of tone it stands high or low in the scale. It is understood 

 by every girl who fingers the piano, that the elevation of the note, the duration 

 of the note, and the rhythmical emphasis upon the note, are three essentially 

 different things which never interfere with one another. But the moment we 

 transfer this case to the analogous domain of spoken accent, — the certus quidam 

 dicendi cantus, as Cicero called it, — we find ourselves involved in a region of con- 

 fusion and contradiction with regard to the simplest matters, than which few 

 things can be imagined more humiliating to human reason. For however diver- 



* A Key to the Classical Pronunciation of Greek and Latin Proper Names ; with Observations 

 on the Greek and Latin Accent and Quantity. By John Walker. London, 1827. 



