(38 On the Mufical Properties of English Syliables. (Feb. 1 
and fourth on the fecond fyllable; but 
although precifely the fame property of 
thefis or heavy; which is given to the fyl- 
lable fan, m ‘‘ fancy,” pair, in “ repair- 
ing,” &c. is given to ute, in “ abfolutely,” 
&.’. A Ns 
-and to ring, in 
to in, in “ mtrepidity,” 
ay eee | 
“ Serringapatam,” here the term accent 
oS otAN | ata et ta 
is by the generality of writers abfolutely 
denied to thefe mere heavy fyllables, and 
exclufively confined to the individual 
fyllable that receives the fuperadded and 
perfectly diftimét quality of percuffion. 
So that we have the fame name applied 
to two diftinct properties of utterance; 
and the appellation potitively denied in 
one inftance to the very fame quality 
which in another is infifted upon as con 
ttituting its fole and indifputable effence. 
But that is not all. That confafion may 
be ftill worfe confounded, the very ap- 
plication of the term accent is, by all our 
grammarians, imperiouily denied to ail 
monolyllables; although fuch of our mo- 
nofyllables as are fubjiuntives have, uni- 
verlally, by the moft deducible and im- 
perious law of Englifh pronunciatioa, of 
neceffity, that identical quality of heavi- 
mefs, or affection to the/és, which in words 
ot two fyllables is cailed their accent ; 
and are even lable, as has been already 
fhewn, to that fuperadded quality of per- 
euflion, to which the name of accent is 
configned in the longer words. : 
But the meafure of abfurdity is not yet 
fall. What grammarian is there who, 
after all his confufed applications of this 
unfortunate word, would feruple to talk 
ef a Scotch accent, an Irifh accent, a 
Welch accent, a Northumbrian accent, a 
French accent, &c. Yet mott affuredly 
the ditferent modes of utterance thus in- 
dicated, depend upon fomething efien- 
tually diftinct from thofe qualities of {yl- 
Jables indicated by the term accent in 
any of the former initances. With very 
few exceptions, the Scotchman, the Infh- 
man, the Welchman, the Londoner, the 
native of Northumberland, &c. would 
place the percuffion precifely on the fame 
& 4 
eeee § 
‘| through- 
fyllable, and would make, | --*—~ 
a 2. ane 
out! any | given | fentence, lthe 
Ag Are A Te An 
fame | diftri | bution Joe heavy and. 
Desc tt. ee i LON rie 
Licht! | ps cuffed and unper 
A a Pe SS a, 
cuffed i Yet nothing can be more dif= 
& ti 
ferent than their accents :—that is to fay, 
(for in this refpeét, and this only, the 
vulgar application of the term is cor- 
rect) than the Idiomatzc tune of the re- 
{pective provinces; or the mode and 
fyftem of what old Ben Jonfon fo accu- 
rately defines, “ the tuning of the voice; 
by lifiing it up and down in_the mufical 
Jcale:”—a definition which is worth all 
that has been written upon the fubjeét of 
accent, from the days of that, admirable 
grammarian, te thofe of Jothua Steele ; 
but which we cannot be furprifed that 
fucceeding grammarians have forgotten; 
fince old Ben himfeif feems to have for- 
gotten it the very inftant it was difmifled 
from his pen: having abfolutely, in the 
practical illufiration of his own axiom, 
confounded it again, with that very pre~- 
party of percuffive force, from which it 
feemed to have feparated it for ever. 
Thus then by the term accent, { mean 
“the tuning of the voice, by lifting it 
up and down in the mutical feale;” and 
I mean nothing elfe. Accents (thus der 
fined) mutt of neceflity be regarded as 
univerfal and indifpenfable properties of 
{yllables: every fyllable (whether {poken 
or fung) being neceflarily characterized 
by a certain portion of tuneable found; 
which muf be either higher or lower im 
an afcertained, or afcertainable icale of 
mufical proportions. And, further, it 
may be ftated, that if fuch fyllable be 
Jpoken, it muft not only have its charac- 
‘teyiftic elevation or depreflion in fuch 
{cale, but alfo its motion through’a cere 
tain portion of that fcale, either upwards 
or downwards, or both; for 1t we dwell, 
during the interval of any fyllable, and 
efpecially any of the long fyllables, on an 
uninterrupted monotone, flinging and not 
{peaking is the. confequence, Thus the 
accents of fpeech have not ouly their dif- 
tinétions of Aigh and low, like the notes 
of common mufic (though ona feale of 
more minute divifion) but have alfo their 
minute movements, or apparent flides ; 
- that is to fay—their diftinctions of acute 
(*), grave{~), gravo-acute (“) and acuto- 
grave (*), or circumflexes; fome one of 
which motions of the voice, muft necef- 
farily take place, during the pronuncia~ 
tion of every fyllable (whether the voice, 
at the commencement of fuch fyllable, 
were pitched high or low), or the character 
of fpeech is lott. “id 
Such are the diftin® properties of the 
zung 
