4. The adverbs ĭllāc, ĭllīc accented their last syllable, by the analogy of hāc, hīc.
17. In Provençal the primary accent falls on the same syllable as in Vulgar Latin: bonitātem ＞ V. L. bonitáte ＞ Pr. bontát, compŭtum ＞ V. L. cómputu ＞ Pr. cónte; cathĕdra ＞ V. L. catédra ＞ Pr. cadéira; filiŏlus ＞ V. L. filyólus ＞ Pr. filhóls, tenuĕram ＞ V. L. ténwera ＞ Pr. téngra, requĭrit ＞ V. L. requærit ＞ Pr. requér, illac ＞ V. L. illác ＞ Pr. lai.
1. Some learned words have an irregular accentuation, apparently due to a mispronunciation of the Latin: cándĭdum ＞ quandí, grammátĭca ＞ gramatíca, láchry̆mo ＞ lagrím, spírĭtum ＞ esprít (perhaps from the formula spirítui sancto). Others were adopted with the correct stress, but shifted it later: fábrĭca ＞ fábrega ＞ fabréga (and fárga), fémĭna ＞ fémena ＞ feména (and fémna), láchry̆ma ＞ lágrema ＞ lagréma, sémĭnat ＞ sémena ＞ seména (and sémna), vírgĭnem ＞ vérgena ＞ vergína (and vérge).
2. Dimércres ＜ dīe Mercūrī (perhaps through ✱dīe Mércŏris) has evidently been influenced by divénres ＜ dīe Vĕnĕris.
3. Some irregularities due to inflection will be discussed under Morphology.
18. The secondary accent, in Vulgar Latin, seems not to have followed the Classic Latin quantitative rule, but to have fallen regularly on the second syllable from the primary stress: cṓgĭtó, cupĭ́dĭtā́tem. If this secondary accent followed the tonic, its vowel probably developed as an unstressed post-tonic vowel; if it preceded, its vowel was apparently treated as a stressed vowel. This treatment was doubtless continued in Provençal until the intertonic vowel dropped out: cógĭtó cógĭtánt ＞ cug cúian (cf. cánto cántant ＞ can cántan), ✱comĭnĭtĭāre ＞ comén’tiáre ＞ coménzár ＞ comensár. As may be seen from this last example, after the fall of the intertonic vowel, the secondary stress, being brought next to the primary, disappeared, and its vowel was henceforth unaccented. Cf. § [45], 1.
19. Short, unemphatic words had no accent in Vulgar Latin, and were attached as particles to the beginning or the end of another word: te vídet, áma me. Such words, if they were not monosyllabic, tended to become so; a disyllabic proclitic beginning with a vowel regularly, in Vulgar Latin, lost its first syllable: illum vídeo ＞ V. L. lu véyo ＞ Pr. lo vei. A word which was used sometimes independently, sometimes as a particle, naturally developed double forms.
2. VOWELS.
QUANTITY.
20. Latin had the following vowels, which might be long or short: a, e, i, o, u. The diphthongs, æ, œ, au, eu, ui, were always long: æ and œ, however, were simplified into monophthongs, mainly in the Republican epoch, æ being sounded ę̄, œ probably ẹ̄; au retained (save in some popular dialects) its old pronunciation; eu did not occur in any word that survived; ui, in cui, illui, in Vulgar Latin, was accented úi (as in fui). The simple vowels, except a, were, doubtless from early times, slightly different in quality according to their quantity, the long vowels being sounded close, the short open: ẹ̄, ị̄, ọ̄, ụ̄; ę̆, į̆, ǫ̆, ų̆.