Part 188 (1/2)
Absurdity akin to this, and still ated by Sheridan, by Walker, and by Lindley Murray, with a host of followers, as Alger, D Blair, Comly, Cooper, Cutler, Davenport, Felton, Fowler, Frost, Guy, Jaudon, Parker and Fox, Picket, Pond, Putnam, Russell, Smith, and others
OBS 8--Sheridan was an able and practical teacher of _English pronunciation_, and one who appears to have gained reputation by all he undertook, whether as an actor, as an elocutionist, or as a lexicographer
His publications that refer to that subject, though now mostly superseded by others of later date, are still worthy to be consulted The chief of them are, his Lectures on Elocution, his Lectures on the Art of Reading, his Rhetorical Gralish Dictionary His third lecture on Elocution, and es of the Rhetorical Grammar, are devoted to _accent_ and _quantity_--subjects which he conceived to have been greatly misrepresented by other writers up to his time[495] To this author, as it would seem, e the invention of that absurd doctrine, since copied into a great rammars, that the accent on a syllable of two or s, _not to the whole of it, but only to so to the character of this letter, as vowel or consonant, the sathen or shorten the syllable's quantity! Of this reat distinction_ of our accent depends upon its _seat_; which may be either upon a vowel or a consonant Upon a vowel, as in the words, glory, father, holy Upon a consonant, as in the words, hab'it, bor'row, bat'tle When the accent is on the vowel, the syllable is long; because the accent is __ upon the vowel When it is on the consonant, the _syllable is short_;[496] because the accent is _ a s consonant _Obvious as this point is_, it _has wholly escaped the observation of all our grammarians and co the peculiar genius of our tongue, implicitly and pedantically have followed the Greekthe accentual mark over a vowel”--_Sheridan's Rhetorical Gram_, p 51 The author's reprehension of the old reat distinction” of short and long syllables is only fit to puzzle or mislead the reader For it is plain, that the first syllables of _hab'it, bor'row_, and _bat'tle_, are twice as long as the last; and, in poetry, these words are trochees, as well as the other three, _glo'ry, fa'ther_, and _ho'ly_
OBS 9--The only important distinction in our accent, is that of the _pri when it is necessary to enforce more syllables of a word than one; but Sheridan, as we see above, after rejecting all the old distinctions of _rising_ and _falling, raising_ and _depressing, acute_ and _grave, sharp_ and _base, long_ and _short_, contrived a new one still more vain, which he founded on that of vowels and consonants, but ”referred to _tinized, in fact, a _vowel accent_ and a _consonant accent_; or, in reference to quantity, a _lengthening accent_ and a _shortening accent_
The discrimination of these ith hily mentioned it in several different places of his works, and not alith that regard to consistency which becomes a precise theorist It led hi_ accent; some of which seem to imply a division of consonants froest that syllables are not the least parts of spoken words And no sooner has he told us that our accent is but one singlea syllable, than he proceeds to declare it two Colish words is chiefly regulated by _accent_, it will be necessary to have a _precise idea_ of that term Accent with us means _no more_ than _a certain stress_ of the voice upon _one letter_ of a syllable, which distinguishes it from all the _other letters_ in a word”--_Sheridan's Rhetorical Grae, means _a certain stress_ of the voice upon _a particular letter_ of a syllable which distinguishes it frouishes the syllable itself_ to which it belongs from the others which coain: ”But as _our accent consists in stress only_, it can just as well be placed on a consonant as [on] a vowel”--_Saain: ”By the word _accent_, is meant _the stress_ of the voice on _one letter_ in a syllable”--_Sheridan's Eleain: ”The term [_accent_] with us has no reference to _inflexions_ of the voice, or uishi+ng one syllable of a word from the rest_, denominated by us accent; and the terular number--This distinction is er upon one syllable_ than the rest; or by _giving it a smarter percussion_ of the voice in utterance Of the first of these, we have instances in the words, _gl=ory, f=ather, h=oly_; of the last, in _bat'tle, hab'it, bor'row_ So that accent, with us, is not referred to tune, but to _time_; to _quantity_, not quality; to the more _equable_ or _precipitate_ motion of the voice, not to the variation of notes or _inflexions_”--_Sheridan's Lectures on Elocution_, p 56; _Flint's Murray's Gram_, p 85
OBS 10--How ”precise” was Sheridan's idea of accent, the readerquotations; in four of which, he describes it as ”_a certain stress_,” ”_the stress_,” and ”_stress only_,” which enforces some ”_letter_;” while, in the other, it is whimsically”_syllables_”--namely, with _equability_, and with _precipitance_--with ”_dwelling longer_,” and with ”_smarter percussion_”--which terms the author very i, ”For the tays of distinguishi+ng syllables by accent, as mentioned before, are _directly opposite_, and produce _quite contrary effects_; the one, by _dwelling_ on the syllable, necessarily ; the other, by the _smart percussion_--of the voice, as necessarily _makes it short_”--_Ib_, p 57 Now it is all a mistake, however co as it does, in stress, enforcement, or ”percussion of voice,” can ever _shorten_ the syllable on which it is laid; because what increases the quantuth; and a syllable accented will always be found _longer_ as well as _louder_, than any unaccented one ih weak sounds may possibly be protracted, and shorter ones be exploded loudly, it is not the custom of our speech, so to deal with the sounds of syllables
OBS 11--Sheridan admitted that some syllables are naturally and necessarily short, but denied that any are naturally and necessarily long
In this, since syllabic length and shortness are relative to each other, and to the cause of each, he was, perhaps, hardly consistent He ht have done better, to have denied both, or neither Bating his new division of accent to subject it sonized very fully the dependence of quantity, long or short, whether in syllables or only in vowels, upon the presence or absence of accent or erammarians of his day; and many since have continued to uphold other views He says, ”It is an _infallible rule_ in our tongue that no vowel ever has a long sound in an unaccented syllable”--_Lectures on Elocution_, p 60 Again: ”In treating of the simple elements or letters, I have shown that some, both vowels and consonants, are _naturally short_; that is, whose sounds _cannot possibly_ be prolonged; and these are the [short or shut] sounds of ~e, ~i, and ~u, of vocal sounds; and three pure mutes, k, p, t, of the consonant; as in the words _beck, lip, cut_ I have shown also, that the sounds of all the other vowels, and of the consonant seree we please; but at the same time it is to be observed, that all these may also be reduced to a short quantity, and are capable of being uttered in as short a space of time as those which are naturally short So that they who speak of syllables as absolutely in their own nature long, _the coh, as I have shown above, there are syllables absolutely short, which cannot possibly be prolonged by any effort of the speaker, yet it is in his power to shorten or prolong the others to what degree he pleases”--_Sheridan's Rhetorical Graain: ”I have already mentioned that when the accent is on the vowel, it of course _; and when the accent is on the consonant, the syllableto the nature of the consonant, or _will of the speakers_ And as _all unaccented syllables are short_, the quantity of our syllables is adjusted by the easiest and simplest rule in the world, and in the exactest proportion”--_Lect on Elocution_, p 66
OBS 12--This praise of our rule for the adjustment of quantity, would have been reatly mistaken, perplexed, and misrepresented by the author If it appear, on inspection, that ”_beck, lip, cut_,” and the like syllables, are twice as long when under the accent, as they are when not accented, so that, with a short syllable annexed or a long one prefixed, they may form _trochees_; then is it _not true_, that such syllables are either always necessarily and _inherently_ short, or always, ”by the smart percussion of the voice, as necessarily _made_ short;” both of which inconsistent ideas are above affir syllables; but, if they are twice as long as the acco short ones, they are not short And, if not short, then that remarkable distinction in accent, which assumes that they are so, is as needless as it is absurd and perplexing
Now let the words, _beck'on, lip'ping, cut'ter_, be properly pronounced, and their syllables be compared with each other, or with those of _lim'beck, fil'lip, Dr=a'cut_; and it cannot but be perceived, that _beck, lip_, and _cut_, like other syllables in general, are _lengthened_ by the accent, and shortened only in its absence; so that all these words are manifestly trochees, as all similar words are found to be, in our versification To suppose ”asof an accent on _one_ syllable, which _constitutes a word_,”
and then say, that ”no unaccented syllable or vowel is ever to be accounted long,” as this enthusiastic author does in fact, is to e portion of the trissyllables and polysyllables which occur in verse An other great error in Sheridan's doctrine of quantity, is his notion that all monosyllables, except a few small particles, are _accented_; and that their quantity is deter or short by the _seat_ or the _mode_ of the accent, as before stated Now, as our poetry abounds with monosyllables, the relative ti to the nature and i to the requirements of rhythm, with no reference to this factitious principle, no conformity thereto but what is accidental, it cannot but be a puzzling exercise, when these difficulties come to be summed up, to attempt the application of a doctrine so vainly conceived to be ”the easiest and simplest rule in the world!”
OBS 13--Lindley Murray's principles of accent and quantity, which later grammarians have so extensively copied, were mostly extracted from Sheridan's; and, as the compiler appears to have been aware of but few, if any, of his predecessor's errors, he has adopted and greatly spread well-nigh all that have just been pointed out; while, in regard to some points, he has considerably increased the number His scheme, as he at last fixed it, appears to consist essentially of propositions already refuted, or objected to, above; as any reader may see, ill 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 sa 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, so, being ht 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 mented the inal rule This principle, indeed, he adopted tih he hardly believed the assertion true: ”And _some writers assert_, that every monosyllable of two or uished”--_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, exeulated, 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, ”ain, it should be observed, that generally, wherever he marks accent, he follows the _old mode_, which Sheridan and Webster so justly conde of ”the accent on the _consonant_,” the sign of stress, as that of time, is set over a _vowel_: as, ”Sadly, robber”--_Ib_, 8vo, 240; 12-Book, where words are often falsely divided: as, ”Ve nice,” for Ven'-ice; ”Ha 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 shohat notions he had at different times, it ht, to conifies _that stress_ of the voice, which is laid on _one syllable_, to distinguish it fro-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 eain, in an other definition, which ritten before he adopted the notion of accent on consonants, of accent on monosyllables, or of accent for quantity in the for of_ a peculiar stress of the voice on a certain _vowel_ or syllable in a word, that it uished from them; as, in the word _presume_, the stress of the voice must be on the second syllable, _sume_, 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 _reat 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 exa _silent_ The latter rule is worse yet: it er_” 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_ uished from _them_; as, in the word _presume_, the stress of the voice must be on the _letter u_, AND [the] _second syllable, sume_, which takes the accent”--_Murray's Graer'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 acco, _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 the form:
”The quantity of a syllable, is _that_ ti 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 ti it_: thus, 'M=ate' and 'N=ote' should be pronounced as slowly again as 'M~at' and 'N~ot'”--_Murray's Graer'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 graive any _other_ rules for the discried 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 theer_” 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 sorammars, 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 exa syllable, the vowel is accented; in a short syllable [,]
the consonant; as [,] _r=oll, p=oll; t~op, c~ut_”--_Rev W Allen's Gra, 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, e,”)_ 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