In words like monumment the consonant is, strictly speaking, as single as it is in monument, or monooment. Its absolute sound is the same. Not so its relative sound. This is exaggerated by two circumstances:—1, The comparative shortness of the vowel u; 2, the fact of the accent falling on it. The increased relative importance of the letter m in the word monumment is mistaken for a reduplication of the sound. This is the reason why in most languages the shortness of a vowel is expressed by the doubling of the consonant following; this doubling being no true reduplication of the sound, but a mere orthographical conventionality.
[§ 239]. Accent and quantity, as may have been collected from pp. [164]-167, do not coincide. Nothing shows this more
clearly than words like the adjective augúst, and the substantive Aúgust (the month), where the quantity remains the same, although the accent is different. The following quotation from Mr. Guest's English Rhythms is made for the sake of four things:—
1. Of showing that the generality of writers have the credit of confusing accent with quantity—
2. Of showing that there is a reason for such a confusion having existed—
3. Of indicating the propriety of the expressions in italics—It is not stated that the consonant c is doubled, but that it is added to the first syllable. The difference lies, not in its reduplication, but in its distribution.
4. Of taking a slight exception—A syllable (accented or unaccented) must be either independent or dependent; if the latter, then in most immediate contact with the consonant that follows.
"Besides the increase of loudness, and the sharper tone which distinguishes the accented syllable, there is also a tendency to dwell upon it, or, in other words, to lengthen its quantity. We cannot increase the loudness or the sharpness of a tone without a certain degree of muscular action: and to put the muscles in motion requires time. It would seem that the time required for producing a perceptible increase in the loudness or sharpness of a tone is greater than that of pronouncing some of our shorter syllables. If we attempt, for instance, to throw the accent on the first syllable of the word become, we must either lengthen the vowel, and pronounce the word bee-come, or add the adjoining consonant to the first syllable, and so pronounce the word bec-ome. We often find it convenient to lengthen the quantity even of the longer syllables, when we wish to give them a very strong and marked accent. Hence, no doubt, arose the vulgar notion, that accent always lengthens the quantity of a syllable.
"It is astonishing how widely this notion has misled men, whose judgment, in most other matters of criticism, it would be very unsafe to question. Our earlier writers, almost to a man, confound accent with quantity."—B. i. C. iv.