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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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^ p But not to insist on my own « < { stance , I will quote the words of he S rated Greek Professor Cheke , of Cambridge . He says , < I can assert not indeed of myself , for that murht seem arrogant , but of many who at this day are studious of the Greek tongue , that they have so well attained this method of pronunciation , that they can express both the true
sound of the letters , and the quantity , and the accent , with the greatest sweetness and ease : ' Such being the case , I request , Mr . Editor , that you will allow me to occupy a few of your columns in an attempt to vindicate and explain these monuments of ancient literature , which appear to me the beauty and perfection of a language which is in other respects also the most beautiful and perfect that we have known .
The syllables of words , as uttered in connected speech , receive in addition to the articulate sounds conveyed by their letters , two distinct properties or accidents , viz . time and tone , or in other words , quantity and accent . From these arise what the ancients called ActytSiiq ti fAeXoq , a certain music of speech , ; which is also the foundation of all metrical composition . Every syllable occupies a longer or shorter time in being" pronounced , and every syllable is pronounced in a higher or lower note on the musical scale . In a word of many syllahles every one has therefore a certain tone : but at the same time ,
there is in every word one syllable which is pronounced with a marked elevation above all the rest , and this characteristic elevation not only distinguishes the word from others , but , Wng variously modified in different cases , is of the greatest use in giving the word its due significancy in the sentence . Although , therefore , every syllable of a word is uttered with some tone , yet there is one which bears a more eminent tone than the rest , and this tone is called , the tone
or accent of the word ; this syllable is called the accented syllable : its tone is also called acute to distinguish n from those of the other syllables , which being lower are therefore called grave . This is no new doctrine . Uionysios of Halfcarnasaos , an eminent < jrreek critic ? of the Augustan age , explains it at length . " livery word , "
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he says , " is not spoken with the same tone , frdo-u ; , ) but one with an acute , ( of £ ia , ) another with a grave , ( J 3 a , peia , ) a third with both . And of those which have both tones , there are some which have the grave blended into the acute , on the same syllable , and
these we call circumflexed ( irspia-iccojj , epa < f ) ; and others which have each tone in separate places , by itself , preserving its own nature . And in disyllables there is no middle space between the acute and the grave ; but in polysyllables , of what sort soever , there is one svllable with the acute
tone in the midst of many grave . " Dionys . icepl ^ vvOeq . Sect . 11 . Both these circumstances of quantity and accent are inseparable from the nature of human speech , and are therefore common to all languages . Yet all languages have not made exactly the
same use of them , nor distinguished them with equal clearness . In some languages , as in English , the difference of the time or quantity of different syllables is not so considerable as in others , such as the Latin and Greek . In these tongues we well
know that all the syllables were divided into long and short , and that the long one was equivalent in time to two short . Our ears are certainly not accustomed to such accuracy , and consequently the time of our syllables is undetermined and inconstant .
On the contrary , the English accents are marked very strongly , the accented syllable in every word being much elevated above the others , as well as uttered more forcibly . In the languages of antiquity , we have reason to believe , the accent was not so prominent .
Now it is in the nature of the human ear , in relation to speech , to count the syllables as they pass , and to desire a recurrence , at intervals more or leas regular , of syllables presenting some one certain distinction . When this recurrence of marked
syllables is -contrived in a manner more regular than prevails in common speech , it constitutes metre or versification . Now we find by observing different languages , that there are two
characters by which the ear is pleased to distinguish the recurring syllables , time and tone . TJieJr are either long syllables , or accented syllables , or both at once . In general they appear
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Argument in favour of the Greek Accents . 443
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1823, page 443, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1787/page/11/
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