Page:Goethe and Schiller's Xenions (IA goetheschillersx00goetiala).pdf/36

 *nants, which is called "length through position."

We have to recognize the fact that Teutonic languages are qualitative while the classic languages are quantitative. This means that in the former the accent of the word is predominant and wrong accents rander a word positively unintelligible, while in the latter the word-accent is of less account. It is of little consequence in English whether we pronounce "[)e]gg" or "aigg," but it makes a decided difference whether we say "in´fidel" or "infi´del." In modern French however, we may pronounce with propriety either "la mai´son" or "la maison´". And this character of the Teutonic languages which renders quality of accent so prominent in speech is the reason why they tend to brevity, for they contract words more and more until, as is the case in English, most of their forms are reduced to monosyllables. Thus the Gothic word habededian is contracted in Middle German into habete, (viz., haben—tat = "I did have"), in modern German into hatte, and in English into "had." The Teutonic languages neglect the unimportant and un