[11.]
The accent in Old English falls usually on the radical syllable, never on the inflectional ending: bríngan, to bring; stā́nas, stones; bérende, bearing; ī́delnes, idleness; frḗondscipe, friendship.
But in the case of compound nouns, adjectives, and adverbs the first member of the compound (unless it be ge- or be-) receives the stronger stress: héofon-rīce, heaven-kingdom; ǫ́nd-giet, intelligence; sṓð-fæst, truthful; gód-cund, divine; éall-unga, entirely; blī́ðe-līce, blithely. But be-hā́t, promise; ge-béd, prayer; ge-fḗalīc, joyous; be-sǫ́ne, immediately.
Compound verbs, however, have the stress on the radical syllable: for-gíefan, to forgive; of-línnan, to cease; ā-cnā́wan, to know; wið-stǫ́ndan, to withstand; on-sácan, to resist.
Note.—The tendency of nouns to take the stress on the prefix, while verbs retain it on the root, is exemplified in many Modern English words: préference, prefér; cóntract (noun), contráct (verb); ábstinence, abstaín; pérfume (noun), perfúme (verb).
[1.] Vowels are said to be round, or rounded, when the lip-opening is rounded; that is, when the lips are thrust out and puckered as if preparing to pronounce w. Thus o and u are round vowels: add -ing to each, and phonetically you have added -wing. E.g. gowing, suwing.
[2.] A little practice will enable the student to see the appropriateness of calling these consonants voiced and voiceless. Try to pronounce a voiced consonant,—d in den, for example, but without the assistance of en,—and there will be heard a gurgle, or vocal murmur. But in t, of ten, there is no sound at all, but only a feeling of tension in the organs.
[3.] Taken separately, every syllable ending in a single consonant is long. It may be said, therefore, that all closed syllables are long; but in the natural flow of language, the single final consonant of a syllable so often blends with a following initial vowel, the syllable thus becoming open and short, that such syllables are not recognized as prevailingly long. Cf. Modern English at all (= a-tall).
