ESSEX INSTITUTE.

sYLLABICA'I'I.ON·
QU ANTIT'l.
13
In treating this part of pronunciation, it will not be necessary to
enter into the nature of that quantity which constitutes poetry; the
quantity here considered will be that which relates to. words taken
singly; and this is nothing more than the length or shortness of the
vowels, either as they stand alone, or as they are differently combined
with the vowels or consonants.
\lIfhere the compound retains the primary sense of the simple"
and the parts of the word are the ,arne in every respect, both in and
out of composition, then the preposition is pronounced in a distinct
syllable; but when the compound departs ever so little from the lite·
ral sense of the simples, the same depanure is observable in the pronunciation;
hence the different syllabication and pronuncIation of r/lo
com-nunc_, and r~-oll~-tnelrd; the former signiF,es a repetition of a
commencement, but the latter does not imply a repetition of a commendation:
thus re-pftition would signify to petition again, while repetition
signifies only an iteration of the same act, be it what it will.­
The same rnay be observed of the words re·create and '·.c-reate, reformation
and rif-()rmation.
From what has been seen of accent and quantity, it is easy to per.
ceive ho\v prone onr language is to an ~.ntepenuILjmateaccent, and
how naturally this accent shorteas the vowel it falis upon: nay, so
great a propensity have vowels to shrink under this accent, thar the
diphthong itself,.in some words,