ACCENTS OF MONOSYLLABLES. 6. The accents of monosyllables leave little room for doubt or discussion. It may be stated as a general rule, that every word has an accent. Cicero says that nature has so ordained it : Ipsa natura quasi modularetur hominum orationem, in omni verbo posuit acutam vocem, nec una plus, nec a postrema syllaba ultra tertiam." (Orat. c. 18.) And yet there are in Greek some exceptions to this rule, and these somewhat arbitrary, seeing that the definite article, for instance, has an accent on the neuter, and not on the masculine or feminine. Bishop Horsley says "that the words without an accent are fourteen in number." (On the Prosodies of the Greek and Latin Languages: London, 1796, p. 6.) Bishop has not affixed his name to the treatise, but it is, I believe, generally understood to have come from his pen. Kühner gives the following list of them: a. Forms of the Article, ó, ǹ, oi, ai. b. οὐ (οὐκ, οὐχ). c. Prepositions, èv, eic (ec), èk (êğ), wc. The (Ausführliche Grammatik der Griechischen Sprache: Hanover, 1834; vol. i. p. 68.) There are some words, which, when standing at the beginning of a sentence, have an accent of their own, but which, in the middle of a sentence, incline or throw back their accent on the preceding syllable; as in the sentence aoi Taûra ἔγραψα, for thee have I written these things, σοὶ has an accent: but in ἔδοξεν ἐμοὶ καθεξῆς σοι γράψαι, σοι throws back its accent on the previous syllable. These words are called enclitics; and it happens in all languages, that the same word, when put prominently forward with a stress laid on it, shall have an accent, and when occurring in the ordinary course of a sentence shall have none: "You are the person for whom this was written:" and, on the other hand, "I thought it proper to write you an account of it." In this latter case the enclitic word becomes virtually embodied in the word preceding it; and in the same way the unaccented words, particularly the prepositions, are incorporated with the succeeding word: "Cùm dico, circum littora,' tanquam unum enuntio, dissimulata distinctione: itaque tanquam in una voce, una est acuta." (Quinctil. i. 5, 27.): so that there would perhaps be no impropriety in saying of these words that they throw the accent forward, as the enclitics throw it back; and Kühner seems to entertain this view by calling them Proklitica or Atona. And accordingly these words, when at the end of a sentence, or placed after the word they govern, have an accent: as πληθύος ἔκ Δαναῶν, We find that every word in the manuscript of Theophilus, with the exceptions pointed out by Kühner, has a mark: Tŵ and kui are therefore to be raised; the distinction between the two sounds, whatever it was, being no longer within our reach. OXYTONES. 7. Having thus briefly mentioned the accentuation of the monosyllables, upon which little question arises, I come to words of more than one syllable. Many of these having the mark on the last syllable (as roλλoi), I shall endeavour to show that we ought to obey the mark, and that in reading Todλoi, we ought accordingly to raise the second syllable and not the first: for we have already seen that this mark, though made from left to right, stands for the acute accent, and shows that the last syllable ought to be raised, or, in the ordinary language of grammarians, that Toλλoi is an oxytone. The pronunciation taught in the English schools and universities is directly contrary; we lay the accent on the first syllable, and make the word πόλλοι "; in short, our pronunciation of Greek is entirely barytone, as, with the exception of monosyllables, where we have no choice, we never lay the accent on a final syllable at all. Why is this? Why, for instance, when we find a mark on the final syllable of leòc, do we refuse to regulate our pronunciation by it? the only reason that I am aware of is, that in Latin Déus is a barytone, and that Béoc ought to be pronounced in the same manner. Now that we are right in our pronunciation of Déus, we have an authority which no scholar can dispute, namely that of Quinctilian himself, who says that Latin words terminate in a grave accent, and that invariably; but we learn from the same author in the same page, that the Greek accentuation was different. In comparing the two languages in respect to sweetness of modulation, after giving several instances of particular letters in which the Greek had the advantage, he proceeds to observe, that the Latin accents are less sweet, not only from a certain harshness, but also from their very monotony; their last syllable never having an acute nor a circumflex, but terminating invariably in a grave. For this reason he says, that the Greek language is so much more agreeable than the Latin, that the Latin poets, when they wish a verse to be sweet in sound, ornament it with Greek nouns: "Sed accentus quoque, cum rigore quodam, tum similitudine ipsa minus suaves habemus, quia ultima syllaba nec acuta unquam excitatur, nec flexa circumducitur, sed in gravem vel duas graves cadit semper. Itaque tanto est sermo Græcus Latino jucundior, ut nostri poetæ, quoties dulce carmen esse voluerunt, illorum id nominibus exornent." (xii. 10, 33.) It is difficult to conceive what authority can be set against this passage of Quinctilian, which affords the clearest demonstration that our accentuation of Greek is faulty, for this very reason, that it is the same as that of the Latin; and that it is faulty in this very particular, that it always makes Greek words barytones. For though Quinctilian does not in so many words predicate that many Greek words are oxytones, that proposition is as clearly implied, in the whole passage taken together, as if it were expressly affirmed. Dr. Gally indeed ventures to assert, that Quinctilian is mistaken in this matter, and that there was not in truth any difference in respect of accents between the Latin and the Greek. Now however specious a modern scholar's reasoning on this subject might have appeared, I should have been very unwilling to trust it on such a subject against a critic and grammarian who constantly heard both Greek and Latin as living languages; and I should have been apt rather to suspect some fallacy in Dr. Gally, though I might not have been able to point out where it lay, than a gross blunder in Quinctilian. But when we come to examine Dr. Gally's reasons, we shall find them built upon two palpable mistakes he says, "This passage hath considerable difficulties. It would not be an easy matter to say what Quinctilian meant by a similitude of accents, if he had proceeded no farther. But he hath explained himself by saying, that the Greeks placed the acute and circumflex upon the last syllable, which the Latins never did, and that upon this account the Latin accents were not so sweet as the Greek. One cannot indeed refuse to Quinctilian the privilege of being his own interpreter. But then as the Latins |