16. The place of the _primary_ accent, which in Classic Latin was
determined by quantity, remained unchanged in Vulgar Latin even after
quantitative distinctions were lost. A short vowel before a mute
followed by a liquid may, in Classic Latin, be stressed or unstressed;
in Vulgar Latin it is usually stressed: _cathédra_, _tenébræ_.[14]
There are some exceptions to the rule of the persistence of the accent
in Vulgar Latin:--
1. An accented e or i immediately followed by the vowel of the
penult transfers the stress to this latter vowel, and is itself
changed to y: _filíŏlus_ ＞ _filyólus_, _mulíĕrem_ ＞ _mulyére_.
This shift is perhaps due to a tendency to stress the more
sonorous of two contiguous vowels.
2. An accented u immediately followed by the vowel of the
penult transfers the stress to the _preceding_ syllable, and
is itself changed to w: _habúĕrunt_ ＞ _ábwerunt_, _tenúĕram_ ＞
_ténwera_. This shift cannot be explained on the same principle
as the foregoing one; it is perhaps due in every case to
analogy--_hábuit_, _ténui_, for instance, being responsible for
the change in _habúerunt_, _tenúeram_.
3. Verbs compounded with a prefix, if their constituent parts
were fully recognized, were usually replaced in Vulgar Latin
by a formation in which the vowel and the accent of the
simple verb were preserved: _défĭcit_ ＞ _disfácit_, _réddĭdi_
＞ _reddédi_, _rénĕgo_ ＞ _renégo_, _réquĭrit_ ＞ _requærit_.
In _récĭpit_ ＞ _recípit_ the accent but not the vowel was
restored, speakers having ceased to associate this verb with
_capio_. In _cóllĭgo_, _érĭgo_, _éxĕo_, _ínflo_ the composite
nature of the word was apparently not recognized.
4. The adverbs _ĭllāc_, _ĭllīc_ accented their last syllable,
by the analogy of _hāc_, _hīc_.
17. In Provençal the primary accent falls on the same syllable as in
Vulgar Latin: _bonitātem_ ＞ V. L. _bonitáte_ ＞ Pr. _bontát_, _compŭtum_
＞ V. L. _cómputu_ ＞ Pr. _cónte_; _cathĕdra_ ＞ V. L. _catédra_ ＞ Pr.
_cadéira_; _filiŏlus_ ＞ V. L. _filyólus_ ＞ Pr. _filhóls_, _tenuĕram_
＞ V. L. _ténwera_ ＞ Pr. _téngra_, _requĭrit_ ＞ V. L. _requærit_ ＞ Pr.
_requér_, _illac_ ＞ V. L. _illác_ ＞ Pr. _lai_.
1. Some learned words have an irregular accentuation,
apparently due to a mispronunciation of the Latin: _cándĭdum_ ＞
_quandí_, _grammátĭca_ ＞ _gramatíca_, _láchry̆mo_ ＞ _lagrím_,
_spírĭtum_ ＞ _esprít_ (perhaps from the formula _spirítui
sancto_). Others were adopted with the correct stress, but
shifted it later: _fábrĭca_ ＞ _fábrega_ ＞ _fabréga_ (and
_fárga_), _fémĭna_ ＞ _fémena_ ＞ _feména_ (and _fémna_),
_láchry̆ma_ ＞ _lágrema_ ＞ _lagréma_, _sémĭnat_ ＞ _sémena_ ＞
_seména_ (and _sémna_), _vírgĭnem_ ＞ _vérgena_ ＞ _vergína_ (and
_vérge_).
2. _Dimércres_ ＜ _dīe Mercūrī_ (perhaps through ✱_dīe
Mércŏris_) has evidently been influenced by _divénres_ ＜ _dīe
Vĕnĕris_.
3. Some irregularities due to inflection will be discussed
under Morphology.
18. The _secondary_ accent, in Vulgar Latin, seems not to have followed
the Classic Latin quantitative rule, but to have fallen regularly on
the second syllable from the primary stress: _cṓgĭtó_, _cupĭ́dĭtā́tem_.
If this secondary accent _followed_ the tonic, its vowel probably
developed as an unstressed post-tonic vowel; if it _preceded_, its
vowel was apparently treated as a stressed vowel. This treatment was
doubtless continued in Provençal until the intertonic vowel dropped
out: _cógĭtó_ _cógĭtánt_ ＞ _cug_ _cúian_ (cf. _cánto_ _cántant_ ＞ _can_
_cántan_), ✱_comĭnĭtĭāre_ ＞ _comén’tiáre_ ＞ _coménzár_ ＞ _comensár_. As
may be seen from this last example, after the fall of the intertonic
vowel, the secondary stress, being brought next to the primary,
disappeared, and its vowel was henceforth unaccented. Cf. § 45, 1.
19. Short, unemphatic words had no accent in Vulgar Latin, and were
attached as particles to the beginning or the end of another word: _te
vídet_, _áma me_. Such words, if they were not monosyllabic, tended to
become so; a disyllabic proclitic beginning with a vowel regularly,
in Vulgar Latin, lost its first syllable: _illum vídeo_ ＞ V. L. _lu
véyo_ ＞ Pr. _lo vei_. A word which was used sometimes independently,
sometimes as a particle, naturally developed double forms.