I must however remark that most, if not all syllables, derived from some important word, have some degree of accent:[44] So that in compounds, there are usually as many accents as radicals. Thus in sanctify, which is composed of two radicals, sanctus and fio, we observe two accents; the strongest on the first syllable. The same may be observed in magnanimity, from magnus and animus, in promogeniture, &c. except that in these the principal accent is on the third syllable.
Notwithstanding it is a general rule, that there are as many accents in a word, as radicals, yet one of them at least is frequently removed from the principal syllable, by the analogy of termination, which prevails over all other reasons. Thus in mathematics, the two accents lie on the proper syllables; but in mathematician, the last accent is removed to a less important place. In imperceptible, the principal accent, with propriety, lies on the third syllable, which being derived from a verb (capio) is the most important. The particle im, being the privative, or that syllable which changes the meaning of the whole word from affirmative to negative, becomes important and has some degree of accent. But in the derivative imperceptibility, while the first and third syllables retain an accent, the analogy of termination carries the principal accent to the fifth syllable, which is adventitious and less important than the others.[45]
In many compounds, as, earth-quake, rain-bow, each syllable is pronounced with the stress that belongs to accented syllables; and there is little or no distinction of accent. The reason is obvious: There is no difference in the importance of the syllables; both are equally necessary to convey the idea. By giving one syllable the whole accent, such a word loses its original meaning, or at least its force, as may be observed in the word hussy, a corruption of house-wife; which, from an affectation of a unity of accent, and a hasty pronunciation, has sunk into a low word. From the same ridiculous affectation, work-house is, by some people, pronounced work-us.
On this head, I shall only observe further, that some words of many syllables have three accents; of which we have an example in val'etu'dina'rian.
It has been already remarked that the composition of words, and the ease of speaking, require a plurality of accent. The reason why words of many syllables have two or three accents, is plain to any man that attempts to pronounce them without an accent.
We cannot pronounce more than two unaccented syllables with perfect ease; but four or five can hardly be articulated without an intervening accent. We glide over the unaccented syllables with such rapidity, that we have hardly time to place the organs in a position to articulate them. The difficulty is in proportion to the number: So that after passing over two or three, the voice very naturally rests or falls forceably upon a particular syllable. Hence the words most difficult to be pronounced, are those of four syllables, accented on the first; as figurative, literature, applicable. The difficulty is very great, when the middle syllables abound with consonants, even in trissyllables, as ag'grandize; but is itself a sufficient reason for not accenting the first syllable of such words as acceptable and refractory. When one of the words which have the accent on the first, and three succeeding unaccented syllables, is followed by two or three particles, the passage is weak and often occasions hesitation in a speaker; as "applicable to the affairs of common life."
A remarkable instance of this, we find in Priestley's Preface to Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever; "Whether of a pleasureable or of a painful nature." In this example there are six weak syllables following each other without interruption, and such passages are not reduceable to any kind of poetic feet. This assemblage of unimportant syllables makes a hiatus in language, which should, as far as possible, be avoided by a writer; for the melody of prose consists in a proper mixture of important and unimportant syllables.[46][K]
DIFFERENCES of PRONUNCIATION and CONTROVERTED POINTS EXAMINED.
Having laid down some general rules reflecting pronunciation, I proceed to examin local differences, and the most material points of controversy on this subject.
In the eastern states, there is a practice prevailing among the body of the people, of prolonging the sound of i in the termination ive. In such words as motive, relative, &c. the people, excepting the more polished part, give i its first sound. This is a local practice, opposed to the general pronunciation of the English on both sides of the Atlantic, sometimes to the rules of accent, and always to derivation. In dissyllables, as motive, active, the genius of our language requires that the accent should be laid on one syllable, and that the other should be short.[47] But by prolonging i in the last, the distinction of accent is totally destroyed.