Proparoxytone
Encyclopedia
Proparoxytone is a linguistic
term for a word with stress on the antepenultimate (i.e. third-to-last) syllable, e.g the English
words cinema and operational. Related terms are paroxytone
(stress on the last but one) and oxytone
(accented on the last one).
In English, most nouns of three or more syllables are proparoxtones. This tendency is so strong in English that it frequently leads to the stress moving to a different part of the root in order to preserve an antepenultimate stress. For example, the root photograph gives rise to the nouns photography and photographer.
In medieval Latin lyric poetry, a proparoxytonic line or half-line is one where the antepenultimate syllable is stressed, as in the first half of the verse "Estuans intrinsecus || ira vehementi."
Ernst Robert Curtius
offers an interesting use of the term in a footnote (Ch. 8, n. 33) of his European Literature in the Latin Middle Ages. He is commenting on this passage from Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel
's didactic poem on grammar:
Here is Curtius' note:
"Sad is the lot of the interjection, for of all the parts of speech it has the lowest place. There is none to praise it." On the way from Latin to French the penultimate syllable of the proparoxytone succumbed. Mallarmé was so touched by this, that he wrote a prose-poem on the "Death of the Penultimate" (Le Démon de l'analogie in Divagations). It ends: Je m'enfuis, bizarre, personne condamné à porter probablement le deuil de l'explicable Penultième."
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
term for a word with stress on the antepenultimate (i.e. third-to-last) syllable, e.g the English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
words cinema and operational. Related terms are paroxytone
Paroxytone
Paroxytone is a linguistic term for a word with stress on the penultimate syllable, that is, the syllable before the last syllable, e.g, the English word potato...
(stress on the last but one) and oxytone
Oxytone
An oxytone is a word with the stress on the last syllable, such as the English words correct and reward. A paroxytone is stressed on the penultimate syllable. A proparoxytone is stressed on the antepenultimate syllable.-See also:*Barytone...
(accented on the last one).
In English, most nouns of three or more syllables are proparoxtones. This tendency is so strong in English that it frequently leads to the stress moving to a different part of the root in order to preserve an antepenultimate stress. For example, the root photograph gives rise to the nouns photography and photographer.
In medieval Latin lyric poetry, a proparoxytonic line or half-line is one where the antepenultimate syllable is stressed, as in the first half of the verse "Estuans intrinsecus || ira vehementi."
Ernst Robert Curtius
Ernst Robert Curtius
Ernst Robert Curtius was a German literary scholar, a philologist and Romance language literary critic....
offers an interesting use of the term in a footnote (Ch. 8, n. 33) of his European Literature in the Latin Middle Ages. He is commenting on this passage from Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel
Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel
Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel was a Benedictine monk of St Mihiel Abbey, near Verdun. He was a significant writer of homilies, and on the Rule of St Benedict.-Life:...
's didactic poem on grammar:
- Partibus inferior jacet interiectio cunctis
- Ultima namque sedet et sine laude manet.
Here is Curtius' note:
"Sad is the lot of the interjection, for of all the parts of speech it has the lowest place. There is none to praise it." On the way from Latin to French the penultimate syllable of the proparoxytone succumbed. Mallarmé was so touched by this, that he wrote a prose-poem on the "Death of the Penultimate" (Le Démon de l'analogie in Divagations). It ends: Je m'enfuis, bizarre, personne condamné à porter probablement le deuil de l'explicable Penultième."
See also
- Barytone (syllable)
- OxytoneOxytoneAn oxytone is a word with the stress on the last syllable, such as the English words correct and reward. A paroxytone is stressed on the penultimate syllable. A proparoxytone is stressed on the antepenultimate syllable.-See also:*Barytone...
- ParoxytoneParoxytoneParoxytone is a linguistic term for a word with stress on the penultimate syllable, that is, the syllable before the last syllable, e.g, the English word potato...
- Penult
- PerispomenonPerispomenonIn Ancient Greek grammar, a perispomenon is a word with a circumflex accent on the last syllable. A properispomenon is a word with a circumflex on the second-to-last syllable. theoû "of a god" prâxis "business"...
- Preantepenult
- Proparoxytone
- Properispomenon
- Ultima (syllable)
- Stress (linguistics)Stress (linguistics)In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...