Page:The grammar of English grammars.djvu/846

. A long syllable requires twice as much time in the pronunciation, as a short one; as, hāte, hăt; nōte, nŏt; cāne, căn; fīne, fĭn."&mdash;Jaudon's Union Gram., p. 173. "If the syllable be long, the accent is on the vowel; as, in bāle, mōōd, educātion; &c. If short, the accent is on the consonant; as, in ănt, bŏnnet, hŭnger, &c."&mdash;Merchant's American School Gram., p. 145.

The quantity of our unaccented syllables, none of these authors, except Allen, thought it worth his while to notice. But among their accented syllables, they all include words of one syllable, though most of them thereby pointedly contradict their own definitions of accent. To find in our language no short syllables but such as are accented, is certainly a very strange and very great oversight. Frazee says, "The pronunciation of an accented syllable requires double the time of that of an unaccented one."&mdash;Frazee's Improved Gram., p. 180. If so, our poetical quantities are greatly misrepresented by the rules above cited. Allen truly says, "Unaccented syllables are generally short; as, rĕtúrn, túrnĕr."&mdash; Elements of E. Gram., p. 222. But how it was ever found out, that in these words we accent only the vowel u, and in such as hunter and bluntly, some one of the consonants only, he does not inform us. As might be expected, it is not well agreed among those who accent single consonants and vowels, what particular letter should receive the stress and the mark. The word or syllable "ant," for example, is marked "an´t" by Alger, Bacon, and others, to enforce the n; "ant´" by Frost, Putnam, and others, to enforce the t; "ănt" by Murray, Russell, and others, to show, as they say, "the accent on the consonant!" But, in "A´NTLER," Dr. Johnson accented the a; and, to mark the same pronunciation, Worcester now writes, "ĂNT´LER;" while almost any prosodist, in scanning, would mark this word "ăntlĕr" and call it a trochee.

Churchill, who is in general a judicious observer, writes thus: "The leading feature in the English language, on which it's melody both in prose and verse chiefly depends, is it's accent. Every word in it of more than one syllable has one of it's syllables distinguished by this from the rest; the accent being in some cases on the vowel, in others on the consonant that closes the syllable; on the vowel, when it has it's long sound; on the consonant, when the vowel is short."&mdash;Churchill's New Gram., p. 181. But to this, as a rule of accentuation, no attention is in fact paid nowadays. Syllables that have long vowels not final, very properly take the sign of stress on or after a consonant or a mute vowel; as, ān´gel, chām´ber, slāy´er, bēad´roll, slēa´zy, slēēp´er, slēēve´less, līve´ly, mīnd´ful, slīght´ly, slīd´ing, bōld´ness, grōss´ly, whōl´ly, ūse´less.&mdash;See Worcester's Dict. It has been seen, that Murray's principles of quantity were greatly altered by himself, after the first appearance of his grammar. To have a full and correct view of them, it is necessary to notice something more than his main text, as revised, with which all his amenders content themselves, and which he himself thought sufficient for his Abridgement. The following positions, which, in some of his revisals, he added to the large grammar, are therefore cited: "Unaccented syllables are generally short: as, 'ădmíre, bóldnĕss, sínnĕr.' But to this rule there are many exceptions: as, 'álsō, éxīle, gángrēne, úmpīre, fōretáste,' &c. "When the accent is on the consonant, the syllable is often more or less short, as it ends with a single consonant, or with more than one: as, 'Sádly, róbber; persíst, mátchless.' "When the accent is on a semi-vowel, the time of the syllable may be protracted, by dwelling upon the semi-vowel: as, 'Cur´, can´, fŭlfil´' but when the accent falls on a mute, the syllable cannot be lengthened in the same manner: as, 'Búbble, cáptain, tótter.'"&mdash;L. Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 240; 12mo, 193. "In this work, and in the author's Spelling-book, the vowels e and o, in the first syllable of such words as, behave, prejudge, domain, propose; and in the second syllable of such as pulley, turkey, borrow, follow; are considered as long vowels. The second syllables in such words as, baby, spicy, holy, fury, are also considered as long syllables."&mdash;Ib., 8vo, p. 241. "In the words scarecrow, wherefore, both the syllables are unquestionably long, but not of equal length. We presume therefore, that the syllables under consideration, [i.e., those which end with the sound of e or o without accent,] may also be properly styled long syllables, though their length is not equal to that of some others."&mdash;Murray's Octavo Gram., p. 241.

Sheridan's "infallible rule, that no vowel ever has a long sound in an unaccented syllable," is in striking contrast with three of these positions, and the exact truth of the matter is with neither author. But, for the accuracy of his doctrine, Murray appeals to "the authority of the judicious Walker," which he thinks sufficient to prove any syllable long whose vowel is called so; while the important distinction suggested by Walker, in his Principles, No. 529, between "the length or shortness of the vowels," and "that quantity which constitutes poetry," is entirely overlooked. It is safe to affirm, that all the accented syllables occurring in the examples above, are long; and all the unaccented ones, short: for Murray's long syllables vary in length, and his short ones in shortness, till not only the just proportion, but the actual relation, of long and short, is evidently lost with some of them. Does not match in "match´less," sad in "sad´ly," or bub in "bub´ble," require more time, than so in "al´so," key in "tur´key," or ly in "ho´ly"? If so, four