PLACE AND POWER OF ACCENT IN LANGUAGE. 285 



With regard to the modern Greek dialect generally, I would observe that 

 though the place of the accent has been changed in a few classes of words, in 

 the great majority of cases it has been retained ; and that in the case of cur- 

 tailed words, as fids for ifxa<s, Trio-oi for ottlo-o), i//api for oxpdpiov, naiBi for iraiZiov, 

 Bev for ovSev, &a, it is the stress upon the medial accented syllable which has 

 secured its permanence after the initial or final unaccented syllable had 

 dropped off. 



But the most incontestable proof that accent means emphasis lies in the 

 doctrine of Enclitics ; for in Greek as in English there are certain little words, 

 such as the pronouns or the negative no, which in common cases are purposely 

 kept unemphatic, and pronounced so rapidly as to appear to lean upon {ijKkivoi), 

 or be taken up by the previous or following word ; but the moment that the 

 necessity of speech demands these words to become prominent, they receive 

 the accent, and become emphatic. Thus we say, "give me the book," like datemi 

 in Italian, as one word, but " give me the book," that is, give it to me, not to 

 you. Now, there could not be a stronger fact than this to prove that Greek 

 accent meant emphasis ; for this use of the acute accent to emphasize in 

 particular cases otherwise unemphatic words is quite common, as, for example, 

 in the case of the negative particle fxa Aia ovk eycoye, contrasted with ovtgjs Aeyeis 

 rj ov, do you say so, or do you not ? 



6. Lastly, the analogy of the modern Italian compared with the ancient 

 Eoman, plainly shows us both the obstinacy of accent as a fact in the life of 

 language, and what accent really meant in ancient Rome and "Greece, as in 

 modern Rome. For nothing is more certain than that, though its special laws 

 were different in the two learned languages, accent, as an accident of articulate 

 speech, did not mean one thing in Greece and another thing in Borne ; but 

 the Greek and Latin accent were in their nature and operation identical ; so 

 that what is predicated of the essence of the one must be considered as predicated 

 of the essence of the other. If, therefore, the modern Italian accent, in its position 

 and power so evidently identical with the old Latin, possesses the element of 

 stress as a prominent feature, it is a legitimate conclusion that the Greek accent 

 did so too. Altogether, it may be remarked as a very extraordinary fact, and in- 

 dicative of the operation of some strange deluding prejudice, that, while the most 

 formidable artillery of erudite arguments have been brought to bear against pro- 

 nouncing Greek with Greek accents, no learned Latinist has yet written a book 

 to prove that Latin ought not to be pronounced with Latin accents. When 

 reading Latin we put the stress on the accented syllable exactly where Cicero, 

 and Quinctilian, and Priscian say it was placed ; but the moment a Hellenist 

 gives the natural predominance to the accents which he finds marked on his 

 books, he is immediately told that accent does not mean stress, but means some- 

 thing that no man can understand or make use of. Whence this inconsistency ? 



VOL. XXVI. PART II. 4 E 



