Page:The Making of Latin.djvu/59

Rh the word, and made it depend upon the quantities of the second, third, and fourth syllables from the end. The following are the rules (determined by Prof. Chas. Exon) which describe the system as it was in the time of Plautus (say about 200 B.C.).


 * (1) If the Penult was long, it bore the accent (amābā́mus).
 * (2) If the Penult was short, then
 * (a) if the Ante-penult was long, it bore the accent (amā́bimus).
 * (b) if the Ante-penult as well as the Penult was short, then (1) if the Ante-ante-penult was long, then the accent was on the Ante-penult (amīcítia); but (ii) if the Ante-ante-penult was also short it bore the accent (cólumine, puéritia).

Syncope in Latin

§ With these facts are linked what may be called Exon’s Laws of, i.e. of contraction causing the loss of a whole syllable. The first of these may be stated as follows:

In pre-Plautine Latin in all words or word-groups of four or more syllables whose chief accent was on a long syllable, a short unaccented medial vowel was syncopated: *cóntetulī, *conteténdī (§ 298) became contulī, contendī; *quinquedecem became *quínqdecem and thence quíndecim (for the -im see § 122); *súpsemere became *súpsmere and that sūmere (on -psm- see § 191); *súrregere, *surregḗmus and the like became súrgere, surgḗmus, and the rest of the verb followed;