The Grammar of English Grammars, Goold Brown [ebook reader for manga txt] 📗

will turn to his definition of accent, and his rules for the determination of quantity. In opposition to Sheridan, who not very consistently says, that, "All unaccented syllables are short," this author appears to have adopted the greater error of Fisher, who supposed that the vowel sounds called long and short, are just the same as the long and short syllabic quantities. By this rule, thousands of syllables will be called long, which are in fact short, being always so uttered in both prose and poetry; and, by the other, some will occasionally be called short, which are in fact long, being made so by the poet, under a slight secondary accent, or perhaps none. Again, in supposing our numerous monosyllables to be accented, and their quantity to be thereby fixed, without excepting "the particles, such as a, the, to, in, &c.," which were excepted by Sheridan, Murray has much augmented the multitude of errors which necessarily flow from the original rule. This principle, indeed, he adopted timidly; saying, as though he hardly believed the assertion true: "And some writers assert, that every monosyllable of two or more letters, has one of its letters thus distinguished."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 236; 12mo, 189. But still he adopted it, and adopted it fully, in his section on Quantity; for, of his twelve words, exemplifying syllabic time so regulated, no fewer than nine are monosyllables. It is observable, however, that, in some instances, it is not one letter, but two, that he marks; as in the words, "m=o=od, h=o=use."—Ib., p. 239; 12mo, 192. And again, it should be observed, that generally, wherever he marks accent, he follows the old mode, which Sheridan and Webster so justly condemn; so that, even when he is speaking of "the accent on the consonant," the sign of stress, as that of time, is set over a vowel: as, "Sádly, róbber."—Ib., 8vo, 240; 12mo, 193. So in his Spelling-Book, where words are often falsely divided: as, "Vé nice," for Ven'-ice; "Há no ver," for Han'o-ver; &c.—See p. 101.

OBS. 14.—In consideration of the great authority of this grammarian, now backed by a score or two of copyists and modifiers, it may be expedient to be yet more explicit. Of accent Murray published about as many different definitions, as did Sheridan; which, as they show what notions he had at different times, it may not be amiss for some, who hold him always in the right, to compare. In one, he describes it thus: "Accent signifies that stress of the voice, which is laid on one syllable, to distinguish it from the rest."—Murray's Spelling-Book, p. 138. He should here have said, (as by his examples it would appear that he meant,) "on one syllable of a word;" for, as the phrase now stands, it may include stress on a monosyllable in a sentence; and it is a matter of dispute, whether this can properly be called accent. Walker and Webster say, it is emphasis, and not accent. Again, in an other definition, which was written before he adopted the notion of accent on consonants, of accent on monosyllables, or of accent for quantity in the formation of verse, he used these words: "Accent is the laying of a peculiar stress of the voice on a certain vowel or syllable in a word, that it may be better heard than the rest, or distinguished from them; as, in the word presúme, the stress of the voice must be on the second syllable, súme, which takes the accent."—Murray's Gram., Second Edition, 12mo, p. 161. In this edition, which was published at York, in 1796, his chief rules of quantity say nothing about accent, but are thus expressed: [1.] "A vowel or syllable is long, when the vowel or vowels contained in it are slowly joined in pronunciation with the following letters; as, 'F=all, b=ale, m=o=od, h=o=use, f=eature.' [2.] A syllable is short, when the vowel is quickly joined to the succeeding letter; as, '~art, b~onn~et, h~ung~er.'"—Ib., p. 166. Besides the absurdity of representing "a vowel" as having "vowels contained in it," these rules are made up of great faults. They confound syllabic quantities with vowel sounds. They suppose quantity to be, not the time of a whole syllable, but the quick or slow junction of some of its parts. They apply to no syllable that ends with a vowel sound. The former applies to none that ends with one consonant only; as, "mood" or the first of "feat-ure." In fact, it does not apply to any of the examples given; the final letter in each of the other words being silent. The latter rule is worse yet: it misrepresents the examples; for "bonnet" and "hunger" are trochees, and "art," with any stress on it, is long.

OBS. 15.—In all late editions of L. Murray's Grammar, and many modifications of it, accent is defined thus: "Accent is the laying of a peculiar stress of the voice, on a certain letter OR syllable in a word, that it may be better heard than the rest, or distinguished from them; as, in the word presúme, the stress of the voice must be on the letter u, AND [the] second syllable, sume, which takes the accent."—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 235; 12mo, 188; 18mo, 57; Alger's, 72; Bacon's, 52; Comly's, 168; Cooper's, 176; Davenport's, 121; Felton's, 134; Frost's El., 50; Fisk's, 32; Merchant's, 145; Parker and Fox's, iii, 44; Pond's, 197; Putnam's, 96; Russell's, 106; R. O. Smith's, 186. Here we see a curious jumble of the common idea of accent, as "stress laid on some particular syllable of a word," with Sheridan's doctrine of accenting always "a particular letter of a syllable,"—an idle doctrine, contrived solely for the accommodation of short quantity with long, under the accent. When this definition was adopted, Murray's scheme of quantity was also revised, and materially altered. The principles of his main text, to which his copiers all confine themselves, then took the following form:

"The quantity of a syllable, is that time which is occupied in pronouncing it. It is considered as LONG or SHORT.

"A vowel or syllable is long, when the accent is on the vowel; which occasions it to be slowly joined in pronunciation with the following letters: as, 'F=all, b=ale, m=o=od, h=o=use, f=eature.'

"A syllable is short, when the accent is on the consonant; which occasions the vowel to be quickly joined to the succeeding letter: as, '~ant, b=onn~et, h=ung~er.'

"A long syllable generally requires double the time of a short one in pronouncing it: thus, 'M=ate' and 'N=ote' should be pronounced as slowly again as 'M~at' and 'N~ot.'"—Murray's Gram., 8vo, p. 239; 12mo, 192; 18mo, 57; Alger's, 72; D. C. Allen's, 86; Bacon's, 52; Comly's, 168; Cooper's, 176; Cutler's, 165; Davenport's, 121; Felton's, 134; Frost's El., 50; Fisk's, 32; Maltby's, 115; Parker and Fox's, iii, 47; Pond's, 198; S. Putnam's, 96; R. C. Smith's, 187; Rev. T. Smith's, 68.

Here we see a revival and an abundant propagation of Sheridan's erroneous doctrine, that our accent produces both short quantity and long, according to its seat; and since none of all these grammars, but the first two of Murray's, give any other rules for the discrimination of quantities, we must infer, that these were judged sufficient. Now, of all the principles on which any have ever pretended to determine the quantity of syllables, none, so far as I know, are more defective or fallacious than these. They are liable to more objections than it is worth while to specify. Suffice it to observe, that they divide certain accented syllables into long and short, and say nothing of the unaccented; whereas it is plain, and acknowledged even by Murray and Sheridan themselves, that in "ant, bonnet, hunger" and the like, the unaccented syllables are the only short ones: the rest can be, and here are, lengthened.[497]

OBS. 16.—The foregoing principles, differently expressed, and perchance in some instances more fitly, are found in many other grammars, and in some of the very latest; but they are everywhere a mere dead letter, a record which, if it is not always untrue, is seldom understood, and never applied in any way to practice. The following are examples:

(1.) "In a long syllable, the vowel is accented; in a short syllable [,] the consonant; as [,] r=oll, p=oll; t~op, c~ut."—Rev. W. Allen's Gram., p. 222. (2.) "A syllable or word is long, when the accent is on the vowel: as n=o, l=ine, l=a, m=e; and short, when on the consonant: as n~ot, l~in, L~atin, m~et."—S. Barrett's Grammar, ("Principles of Language,") p. 112.

(3.) "A syllable is long when the accent is on the vowel, as, P=all, s=ale, m=o=use, cr=eature. A syllable is short when the accent is placed on the consonant; as great´, let´ter, mas´ter."—Rev. D. Blair's Practical Gram., p. 117.

(4.) "When the stress is on the vowel, the measure of quantity is long: as, Máte, fáte, complàin, pláyful, un der míne. When the stress is on a consonant, the quantity is short: as, Mat´, fat´, com pel´, prog´ress, dis man´tle."—Pardon Davis's Practical Gram., p. 125.

(5.) "The quantity of a syllable is considered as long or short. It is long when the accent is on the vowel; as, F=all, b=ale, m=ood, ho=use, f=eature. It is short when the accent is placed on the consonant; as, Mas´ter, let´ter."—Guy's School Gram., p. 118; Picket's Analytical School Gram., 2d Ed., p. 224.

(6.) "A syllable is long when the accent is on the vowel; and short, when the accent is on the consonant. A long syllable requires twice the time in pronouncing it that a short one does. Long syllables are marked thus =; as, t=ube; short syllables, thus ~; as, m~an."—Hiley's English Gram., p. 120.

(7.) "When the accent is on a vowel, the syllable is generally long; as =aleho=use, am=usement, f=eatures. But when the accent is on a consonant, the syllable is mostly short; as, h~ap'py, m~an'ner. A long syllable requires twice as much time in the pronunciation, as a short one; as, h=ate, h~at; n=ote, n~ot; c=ane, c~an; f=ine, f~in."—Jaudon's Union Gram., p. 173.

(8.) "If the syllable be long, the accent is on the vowel; as, in b=ale, m=o=od, educ=ation; &c. If short, the accent is on the consonant; as, in ~ant, b~onnet, h~unger, &c."—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."—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, r~etúrn, túrn~er."— 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.

OBS. 17.—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; "~ant" 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, "~ANT´LER;" while almost any prosodist, in scanning, would mark this word "~antl~er" and call it a trochee.[498] 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."—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, =an´gel, ch=am´ber, sl=ay´er, b=ead´roll, sl=ea´zy, sl=e=ep´er, sl=e=eve´less, l=ive´ly, m=ind´ful, sl=ight´ly, sl=id´ing, b=old´ness, gr=oss´ly, wh=ol´ly, =use´less.—See Worcester's Dict.

OBS. 18.—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,