Circumflex Accent Research Articles

An Introduction to Afrikaans Art Songs: A Guide to Lyric Diction

An Introduction to Afrikaans Art Songs: A Guide to Lyric Diction Christian Bester (bio) and Bronwen Forbay (bio) LANGUAGE AND DICTION BASIC AFRIKAANS GRAMMAR The second half of this two-part presentation (see "An Introduction to Afrikaans Art Song Literature: Origins and Repertoire," pp. 471–482) aims to provide singers and teachers with a basic overview of the formation and pronunciation of authentic Afrikaans vowels and consonants. Phonetic transcription rules using the IPA will help guide students and teachers in their correct application. Written Afrikaans utilizes the same twenty-six letters as the English alphabet. Afrikaans sounds closest to Dutch, but uses considerably simpler spellings by comparison, a characteristic that makes it more accessible than many other Germanic languages. Although Afrikaans shares many cognates with English, it is characterized by the frequent use of diminutives (inherited from Dutch), numerous diphthongs, a lack of gender distinction, and simplicity in its verbal system. Verbs are not conjugated, but remain the same within a specific tense regardless of person or number. This particular characteristic makes Afrikaans lyric diction considerably easier to master than other Germanic languages. Afrikaans is predominantly a phonetic language with a limited number of exceptions. Closed syllables are more common than open syllables.1 Where two dissimilar consonants or double consonants separate syllables, the division usually falls between the two consonants, resulting in the first syllable being closed. Exceptions to this rule include the consonant combinations: tr, kw, dr, kl, and kr, which are divided before the initial consonant.2 Word Stress Indigenous Afrikaans words generally receive stress on the first syllable.3 Prefixes and suffixes usually remain unstressed, while the root portion of a word is emphasized.4 Exceptions include either words of foreign origin, borrowed words where stress shifts to the final syllable, or separable compound words where stress shifts to the prefix.5 Since a number of exceptions exist for which no rule can be provided,6 the use of a reliable dictionary such as the Madeline du Plessis et al., Pharos Afrikaans-Engels Woordeboek (Pharos Afrikaans-English Dictionary) published in 2005 is highly recommended. Diacritical Marks The four diacritical marks in Afrikaans are: • Acute accent on é Indicates syllabic stress but does not modify the vowel.7 Example: dié [di] (this/that) [End Page 497] Note: Although the spelling of the example word is almost identical to that of the definite article die (the), the acute accent indicates not only that the syllable is emphasized but also that a different meaning of the word is present. • Grave accent on è Indicates that the vowel is stressed, open, and of long duration.8 It is found mostly over short exclamation words. Incidentally, there are only four indigenous Afrikaans words that are compulsorily written with a grave accent; dè [dɛ:] (take this); hè [ɦɛ:] (really?); nè [nɛ:] (n'est-ce pas?/ isn't it? /not so?/yes?); and appèl [aˈpɛ:l] (appeal).9 • Circumflex accents on ê, î, ô, and û All stress the syllable in which they appear and result in long open vowels pronounced [ɛ:], [ə:], [ɔ:], and [œ:], respectively.10 Examples: sê [sɛ:] (say); wîe [ˈvə:ʱə] (wedge); môre [ˈmɔ:rə] (morning/tomorrow) and brûe [ˈbrœ:ʱə] (bridges). The circumflex accent does not appear above a vowels in Afrikaans.11 • Dieresis This occurs on ë, ï, ö, and ü vowels.12 The accent does not function as a German umlaut as no vowel modification occurs. Called a deelteken [ˈdeᵊlˌteᵊkən] in Afrikaans, it serves as a divisional sign or vowel separator. This diacritical mark ensures that the second vowel in the word is not assimilated into the overall sound, but is sounded separately from the vowel preceding it. Syllabification occurs immediately before the dieresis. As a result, the vowel preceding it is always in an open syllable. Example: oë [ˈo:ᵊǝ] (eyes); haël [ˈɦa:əl] (hail) Note: The dieresis can occur on ä in rare circumstances when "in combination with a preceding a, to indicate the start of a new syllable, such as in lilaägtig, Kanaän, and a number of technical (mostly scientific) terms where a suffix starting with a follows a stem ending on a."13 Example: Aäron [aˈa:ron] Afrikaans Vowel Sounds Afrikaans has five pure vowel sounds...

The Grammarian Consentius on Errors Concerning the Accent in Spoken Latin

Summary:The 5th-century Gaulish grammarian Consentius wrote an extensive treatise on errors in spoken Latin. In the Roman grammatical tradition, errors in single words are deemed to arise by means of the improper addition, removal, substitution, and misplacement of one of the constitutive elements of the word (letter, syllable, quantity, accent, and aspiration). Late grammarians assumed that the four catego- ries of change applied to accents too, but only Consentius provided an example for each of these cases. However, his discussion poses some problems. The examples of removal, substitution and misplacement of an accent all concern the word orator and present oddities such as a circumflex accent on the antepe- nultimate syllable; they were clearly made up for the sake of completeness and have no bearing on our understanding of Vulgar Latin. On the other hand, the example of addition of an accent is tríginta, with retraction of the accent on the antepenultimate syllable; this must be genuine and fits in well with current reconstructions of most Romance continuations of Latin triginta (Italian trenta, French trente, etc.) and other vigesimals (uiginti, quadraginta, etc.).

Configuraciones tonales de frases entonativas en enunciados aseverativos del español de la Ciudad de México

The objective of this paper is to describe the prosodic features of the final intonation contour of minor intonational phrases (ip) and the tonemes of major intonational phrases (IP) in Mexico City’s Spanish variety. The speech data was taken from a spontaneous speech corpus made from speakers from two social networks: neighborhood and labor. Final intonation contours of ip show a predominantly rising movement. These contours are generally produced with greater length in the last syllable of the ip, which represents the most significant difference between both networks in the case of oxitone endings. On the other hand, tonemes are predominantly descendant, although the circumflex accent has an important number of cases within the data set. Tonemes produced by the neighborhood network are produced with larger length than those from the labor network.

A Girl Burst into Flames

A Girl Burst into Flames Ruth Joffre (bio) No one noticed. It happened all the time: in the middle of math class, during study hall, or on the walk home from school. Once, it even happened in the showers, after gym class, while she was clutching a bar of soap to her chest and averting her eyes. Other girls asked her: "How is that even possible? Why isn't the water putting out the flames?" And she just shook her head and told them it was hormonal. Her doctor said the fire was a projection, a visual manifestation of internal reactions to stimuli. "You'll have to be careful," the doctor warned her, "not to get too aroused in front of other people," and because her doctor was a woman and chose her words with great care, the girl understood aroused to mean more than just the obvious. This fire would betray her, every rush of lust emerging, every extreme of anger exploding like fireworks under her skin; she would burn so publicly, she would never be able to hide it from her peers. And so she learned to control it and began setting herself on fire randomly (at assemblies, in the bleachers, during exams or the Pledge of Allegiance) just to throw off their scent, to remain in some ways unknown. Better to be a total freak, she thought, than a freak clearly in love with Madame P., the French teacher, during whose class the girl first burst into flames. She remembered it was an ordinary day (a Monday, to be exact); Madame P. had scheduled an exam for that morning, so the girl was sitting at a desk at the back of the class, allowing her half-finished test to taunt her with acute and circumflex accent marks, when a dull heat began radiating from her palms. She felt sweaty—so sweaty, in fact, that she thought she might be having a panic attack. First her hands flushed, then her cheeks, then her chest. Orange flames spat out of her ears, and her fingertips burned up like match heads, emitting light blue flames that tapered at the ends, mimicking the luminous sheen of glow-inthe-dark nail polish. She lifted them up to the light and wondered: what will Madame think? For that was what had been going through her mind before she burst into flames—what would Madame think when she graded the exams and realized the girl had forgotten the French word for pan? Of course, she knew it now, had made a concerted effort since to control her grades, her tongue, the way the fire licked her skirt whenever Madame crossed the room; but at the time her condition was still brand new and people were afraid. A boy beside her shouted, "Whoa!" and scrambled away, toward the front of the class. Her classmates formed a wide ring, as if around a bonfire. Madame pressed her way through. Let her hand hover over the girl's burning arm, too afraid to touch down for fear of being burned by the flames. Est-ce que ça fait mal? Madame asked. The girl nodded, not because it was really painful but because she very much wanted Madame to reach through the flames and touch her warm, bare flesh where the fire turned it translucent; she hadn't realized until then just how much she wanted it. How far she would go to get Madame's attention. Please dip your hand into my chest, she wanted to plead. Please rub your thumb over my eyelids and slide your fingers under my chin. I promise it won't hurt. [End Page 91] Ruth Joffre Ruth Joffre is the author of the story collection Night Beast. Her fiction and poetry have appeared or are forthcoming in Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast, Prairie Schooner, The Masters Review, Lightspeed, Hayden's Ferry Review, Copper Nickel, PANK, and elsewhere. Her nonfiction and criticism have appeared or are forthcoming in Electric Literature, Colorado Review, The Gay & Lesbian Review, Lambda Literary, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. Her months-long interview series with the authors, editors, and curators of craft books and resources is available at the Kenyon...

Cervical foraminal steroid injections under CT guidance: retrospective study of in situ contrast aspects in a serial of 248 cases.

To describe all the CT findings after in situ contrast injection just before steroid injection and to recognize the abnormal aspects associated with intravascular contamination. We retrospectively evaluated 248 cervical transforaminal steroid injections done at the university hospital in Dijon, France, in 2008-2012, to treat cervicobrachial neuralgia inadequately improved by optimal medical treatment for at least 3weeks. Features describing the opacification patterns were recorded. Five main nonvascular opacification patterns were identified: clumps of contrast agent outside the foramen (16%), a crab claw pattern surrounding the ganglion (13%), a "French" circumflex accent pattern (15%), reflux along the needle (7%), and facet joint capsule opacification (22%). Concerning the situations requiring a change in needle position, intravenous injection occurred in 26% of the patients, with a crab claw pattern in half the cases and a clump pattern in half the cases. Intraarteriolar injection was noted in two patients. CT after in situ contrast injection ensures proper needle positioning outside the blood vessels before steroid injection. Penetration of the needle tip into a vein is very common, whereas arteriolar puncture is extremely rare.

Graikų ir lotynų kirčiavimo įtaka lietuvių kirčio žymėjimui

THE INFLUENCE OF GREEK AND LATIN ACCENTUATION ON LITHU­ANIAN ACCENT NOTATIONSummaryThe accent signs of most alphabetic languages ultimately derive from Greek signs devised in the 3rd century BC. This 'Alexandrine' system of accent notation was transformed into the now current ‘Byzantine’ system for Greek around 400 AD. The Greek circumflex, originally written in the form of an arc like an inverted breve, was graphically transformed into its present wavy shape (identical to the Latin tilde) some time in the Middle Ages.In 16th century Europe (not in the 17th century, as was earlier believed) an artificial, so-called ‘Henninian’, accentuation system of Greek arose. In consequence, Greek accent signs were often treated as meaningless diacritics, useful only for the distinction of otherwise homonymous word forms. A similar use of distinctive (phonetically meaningless) accents was created in the Latin script, where it was current from the late 16th to the late 18th century.The Lithuanian accentuation of Daniel Klein follows closely this humanist Graeco-Latin usage of distinctive diacritics. The same tendency is observed in other Lithuanian writings of the time as well. The genitive singular endings -ôs / -ês and genitive plural ending -û were therefore more or less regularly marked with a circumflex sign, which had, at least in printed texts, the Latin angled (not the Greek tilde-like) shape. Thus the written circumflex sign, be it by incidence or, as Kurschat suggests, as a result of the intuitive insight of old Lithuanian grammarians, coincided with the actual Lithuanian circumflex intonation; accordingly the acute sign came to denote the Lithuanian acute intonation. The actual Lithuanian accents were, however, greatly distorted in writing by formally applying Greek accentuation rules. The accent notation of the 1737 grammar Universitas Lingvarum Litvaniae, known for its exact adherence to the actual Lithuanian syllable intonations rather than to formally applied Greek rules, is nevertheless consistent with this Graeco-Latin tradition in its choice of the circumflex sign to mark the Lithuanian circumflex accent. In the printed 1737 book the accent notation appears, however, somewhat awkward – an accentless letter of a different typeface is substituted for a letter with the acute – but we argue that this oddity was not the original author’s intention but was due to the lack of accented letter punches at the Vilnius University printing house.The alternative tradition of Lithuanian accent notation, started by Simonas Stanevičius, adopted by Kazimieras Jaunius, and rejected by Kazimieras Būga, is also discussed. While different from the traditional system, it was nevertheless based on the comparison of Lithuanian syllable intonations with those of Greek.The Lithuanian accent notation was given its final form by Friedrich Kurschat, who also gave the Lithuanian circumflex sign its present wavy shape, directly and consciously, as he himself admits, derived from Greek (especially from the Greek typefaces current in Germany and France; in Anglophone countries the Greek circumflex often still has the old arc-shaped form).The factor of the common Indo-European heritage in the actual coincidence of Greek and Lithuanian syllable intonations in the end syllables (acute in the nominative, circumflex in the genitive), put forward by Adalbert Bezzenberger, has suffered numerous attacks, notably from Jerzy Kurylowicz; but it has never been convincingly disproved. It still seems that what once was an intuitive – or even incidental – choice of Greek accent signs to mark corresponding Lithuanian accents, indeed reveals a much older and deeper affinity.

Žodžio galo ir priegaidžių fonetinė evoliucija šiaurės žemaičių tarmėje

PHONETIC EVOLUTION OF WORD END AND SYLLABLE ACCENTS IN THE NORTHERN ŽEMAITIAN DIALECT Summary In this investigation an attempt is made to test if the accent, which is placed in the pe­nultimate syllable, in the Northern Žemaitian dialect has any influence on the ending re­duction. The analysis of the corpus of 4000 items has shown that word end reduction is greater after a circumflex accent. The drawn-out nature of the circumflex accent in the Northern Žemaitian dialect causes the concentration of the main energy on the distinctly drawn-out sound, weakening the intensity of the ending and as a result reducing it more. The vowel heard more distinctly after the acute accent, which in the dialect is most often realised as a broken one, apparently is determined by the nature of the broken accent it­self: when the break is very distinct, the final vowel following it becomes more distinct as well. The investigation has also shown that ending reduction is significantly greater after voiceless and non-palatalized (‘hard’, ‘dark’) consonants.

Mono- and binuclear cyclometallated palladium(ii) complexes containing bridging (N,O-) and terminal (N-) imidate ligands: Air stable, thermally robust and recyclable catalysts for cross-coupling processes

Novel dinuclear cyclometallated palladium complexes [{Pd(mu-NCO)(C circumflex accent N)}(2)], containing asymmetric imidato -NCO- bridging units have been synthesised [C circumflex accent N = 7,8-benzoquinolyl; -NCO- = succinimidate (1c), phthalimidate (1a-3a) or maleimidate (3c)]. The reaction of these complexes, and the previously reported analogous imidate precursors containing a phenylazophenyl (1a-3a) or 2-pyridylphenyl (1b-3b) backbone, with tertiary phosphines provides novel mononuclear N-bonded imidate derivatives of the general formula [Pd(C circumflex accent N)(imidate)(L)][L = PPh(3), P(4-F-C(6)H(4))(3) or P(4-MeO-C(6)H(4))(3)]. The single crystal structures of [Pd(azb)(phthalimidate)(P(4-MeO-C(6)H(4))(3))](9a) and [Pd(bzq)(phthalimidate)(PPh(3))](7c) have been established. Dinuclear complexes (1a-3a, 1b-3b, 1c-3c) demonstrate outstanding thermal stability in the solid-state, as shown by thermoanalytical techniques. A marked influence of bridging imidate groups on the initial decomposition temperature is observed. The dinuclear and mononuclear derivatives are shown to be active catalysts/precatalysts for the Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions of aryl bromides with aryl boronic acids, and the Sonogashira reactions of aryl halides with phenyl acetylene (in the presence and absence of Cu(I) salts). The conversions appear to be dependent, to some extent, on the type of imidate ligand, suggesting a role for these pseudohalides in the catalytic cycle in both cross-coupling processes. Lower catalyst loadings in 'copper-free' Sonogashira cross-couplings favour higher turnover frequencies. We have further determined that these catalysts may be recycled using a poly(ethylene oxide)(PEO)/methanol solvent medium in Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling. Once the reaction is complete, product extraction into a hexane/diethyl ether mixture (1 : 1, v/v) gives cross-coupled products in good yields (with purity > 95%). The polar phase can then be re-used several times without appreciable loss of catalytic activity.

Dictionnaire nelemwa-nixumwak francais-anglais (review)

Reviewed by: Dictionnaire nêlêmwa-nixumwak français-anglais (Nouvelle-Calédonie) John Lynch Isabelle Bril . 2000. Dictionnaire nêlêmwa-nixumwak français-anglais (Nouvelle-Calédonie). SELAF No. 383; Langues et Cultures du Pacifique 14. Paris: Peeters. 523 pp. 1680 Belgian Francs (42 Euros), paper. This is the latest in a series of descriptive studies on the languages of New Caledonia, most of which have been produced by linguists working at LACITO in the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris. The language under study here is spoken by about 1,000 people living on the extreme northwest coast of the New Caledonian mainland. There are two main dialects: Nêlêmwa /nẽlẽmwa/ is the more northerly, spoken in the Poum area; Nixumwak/nixumwak/lies to the south, in the area of Koumac (and it has sometimes been referred to in the earlier literature as Koumac or Kumak). It is bordered to the north and east by Nyelâyu (Ozanne-Rivierre 1998), to the east by Caaàc, and to the east and south by Yuanga (Schooling 1992). Major previous studies on one or other of these dialects include Haudricourt (1963) and Bril (1995). Preliminary sections (7-12) contain acknowedgments, lists of abbreviations, and so on.1 These are followed by an introductory section (13-24) outlining the place of the language within Austronesian, Oceanic, and the New Caledonian family, some background to the current study, and a discussion on kin terms and terms for aspects of social organization. There follows a thorough outline of the phonology (25-46) and a brief grammatical sketch (47-75), themselves useful contributions to the Oceanic literature. Nyelâyu has a complex phonology typical of New Caledonian languages: contrast between voiceless aspirated, voiceless unaspirated, and prenasalized stops in labiovelar, bilabial, apical, palatal, and velar positions (although the Nixumwak aspirated stops are realized as voiceless fricatives in Nêlêmwa); contrast between voiced and voiceless nasals, lateral and semivowels; seven oral and five nasal vowels; and a phonemic vowel-length distinction. The orthography uses digraphs and trigraphs for complex consonants (e.g., kh for Nixumwak /kh/ and Nêlêmwa /x/, phw for Nixumwak /phw/, etc.); the circumflex accent distinguishes nasal from oral vowels, while vowel length is written by doubling the letter—thus ûû = /ũ:/. Phonological and grammatical differences between the dialects are noted where they occur. The grammar sketch is a brief summary of Bril's (B) Ph.D. dissertation (1995). Like its close relative Nyelâyu (Ozanne-Rivierre 1998, reviewed in OL by Lynch 1999), Nêlêmwa2 is an ergative language: intransitive clauses have the structure [End Page 428] VS, while transitive clauses are VAO or VOA, with agents marked by one of the preposed particles (e)a [+human] or ru [-human]. As in its closer relatives, there are rich systems of deictics and demonstratives, possessive classifiers, and numeral classifiers. There is a bibliography (497-499) and two illustrative texts (501-519) at the end of the book where, following standard French practice, the table of contents is also located (521-527). The bulk of the book is a dictionary of Nêlêmwa: a general Nêlêmwa-French- English list (77-368), followed by two finderlists, French-Nêlêmwa (369-441) and English-Nêlêmwa (443-496). The back-cover blurb states that there are approximately 3,500 entries in the main dictionary, which makes it a substantial one by Pacific standards. The choice of typography and format makes the work quite readable. In the main dictionary, Nêlêmwa items are in bold, with the headword set out slightly to the left and in a larger font than examples within the entry; French definitions and translations are in normal font, English in italic, while grammatical information, cross-referencing, and the like are in a smaller font, usually at the end of the entry. Where forms differ between dialects, these are clearly labelled as P (for Poum, thus Nêlêmwa) or K (for Koumac, thus Nixumwak). Definitions are clear, concise, and yet comprehensive, and there is adequate exemplification of usage, idioms, and so on. (One would always...

The Circumflex Accent: a Confrontation of Accentological Classes as Documented in Slovene.

The Circumflex Accent: a Confrontation of Accentological Classes as Documented in Slovene.

The Inflectional Accent in Indo-European

The following is a historical and comparative study of the accentual alternations that go with inflection in the Indo-European languages which retain the old 'free' accent.l I will use the term 'inflection' in a narrow sense, referring to person and number in the arerb, to case and number in the noun. A thorough synchronic analysis of Sanskrit, Greek, or Lithuanian accentuation, even if limited in this way to inflectional processes, would be a major undertaking in itself. However, we do not have to wait for this work to be completed before starting our reconstruction. The outlines of the synchronic systems can be made sufficiently clear so that basic conclusions can be drawn about the proto-system that underlies them. My procedure will be to sketch a synchronic analysis of the inflectional accent of the three branches of IE that preserves the old accentual mobility, and in the process to draw whatever historical conclusions are possible. §1 provides a sketch of the classical Greek accent system, with special emphasis on the alternation between acute and circumflex in the declension. §2 gives an analysis of Sanskrit accentuation, and its complex interrelationship with ablaut and other segmental processes. §3 then outlines how the Balto-Slanc accent systems can be derived from the same system that underlies Greek and Sanskrit. §4 deals with the phonetic realization of accent, which turns out to have interesting systematic consequences, but has so far been unjustly neglected by comparativists. The IE accent systems show some pervasive systematic properties, explanation of which is a basic requirement for any theory of IE accentuation: (i) There is a definite relationship between accentual mobility ('free' accent) and the existence of contour accents ('intonation', i.e. the contrast between acute and circumflex accent). As Table 1 shows, distinctiare contour accents

Rule Ordering in Baltic and Slavic Nominal Accentuation

There are obvious similarities in Baltic and Slavic nominal accentuation. Although the modern languages have undergone considerable changes, both can be reconstructed as having three types of accented syllables: a short accented vowel, a long vowel with rising intonation termed acute, and a long vowel with falling (nonrising) intonation termed circumflex. In modem Lithuanian the original circumflex is now a rising accent, as in va~nas 'raven,' while the original acute is a falling accent, as in vdrna 'crow.' In Slavic, which went through a stage where neither accent was rising, original intonation was recoded as length. In Serbo-Croatian, which will be used for most of the examples in this paper, length was preserved under circumflex accent, e.g., vrdn 'raven' (long falling accent), while the acute was shortened, e.g., vratna (short falling accent). In Russian the original acute accent is reflected in polnoglasie groups as stress on the second vowel (vor6na 'crow'), and the original circumflex is reflected as stress on the first (v6ron 'raven'). Both Baltic and Slavic had fixed and mobile accentual paradigms. In Slavic the accent could be fixed on any syllable of the word, although a fixed accent on the theme vowel (oxytonic accent) was in general limited to derived stems. In late Baltic the accent could be fixed on any vowel of the stem except the theme vowel. Kurylowicz suggests that at one time Baltic also had theme-vowel accent but that the accent in this class was retracted one syllable.- As evidence he cites cognate suffixes which have suffixal accent in Lithuanian but had theme-vowel accent in Slavic: Lith. -ic-as, -tk-as, -im-as, -at-4 (from *-dt-a); Slavic *-sc*, *-.k, *-smd, *-otd. Exact cognates are Lith. siuvikas, R Xvec 'tailor'; Lith. piesimas 'writing,' R pis'm6 'letter'; Lith. nuogat~, R nagotd 'nakedness. In the mobile paradigm the alternation in both Baltic and Slavic is basically between the first syllable of the stem and the last syllable of the desinence. Following Roman Jakobson,3 we represent stems of this paradigm as morphophonemically unaccented. Desinences are either accented or unaccented, and it is the co-occurrence of an accented desinence with an unaccented stem which accounts for desinential accent.4 In the case of the co-occurrence of an accented desinence with an accented stem, the accent

‘Greek in our Schools’: Two Replies

Mr. Francis Elliot's eloquent plea for substituting the ‘beautiful modern Greek pronunciation’ for the so-called ‘reformed’ pronunciation of the ancient language is at first sight very attractive, and there is no doubt that the reformed pronunciation is itself in need of some reforming. I would agree that the modern language in the mouths of most Greeks is more beautiful than the ancient language in the mouths of most Englishmen—this is partly due to the Englishman's inability or reluctance to fit his mouth to continental vowels and consonants—and that the modern Greek way of stressing the syllables bearing the acute or circumflex accent should be universally adopted in our schools instead of being the hobby of a few eccentric teachers. The ancient Greek accent was no doubt one of pitch, but there are traces of the transformation of this into a stress accent as early as the fourth century a.d.; in any event there is a tendency for a higher-pitched syllable to carry a stress with it, whereas there is no case at all for foisting the Latin trisyllabic rule of stress on to ancient Greek. Even to utter the stressed syllables at a higher pitch is no impossible feat.

The Cause of the West Germanic Consonant Lengthening

Although the results of the West Germanic consonant lengthening have been carefully described,1 the phonetic process underlying this change remains a subject for speculation. Sievers2 ascribed the development to circumflex accent, but this hypothesis was soon abandoned in favor of the 'syllable theory' proposed by Kauffmann.3 According to the latter explanation, the lengthening process was connected with syllable division; in WGmc. *satjan, for instance, [t] would belong to the first syllable but would become also a part of the second, so that the articulation of [t] would be prolonged:4 *sat-jan > *sat-tjan > OE settan 'set'. This interpretation, so far as it goes, has been generally accepted, though with the realization that it does not actually show how or why the lengthening occurred. Jellinek6 found the syllable theory 'sehr ansprechend' but rejected it as insufficient, and the late Professor Prokosch7 noted its vagueness with regard to phonetic details. Extending and supplementing the syllable

A Note to Portuguese and Brazilian Spelling

N E. B. WILLIAMS'S enlightening article and Brazilian Spelling, published in the last number of HISPANIA (XXV, 2, May 1942), we note the omission of one interesting divergence between the spelling (and pronunciation) of Portugal and that of Brazil. Under Miscellaneous Differences (2) is mentioned the fact that tonic o + m or n in proparoxytones is open in Portugal, therefore bearing an acute accent, but close in Brazil, where it bears a circumflex accent: c6modo, quilometro in Portugal; c6modo, quil6metro, etc., in Brazil. At this point the writer might have added that the vowel e generally proceeds in similar fashion: tonic e + m or n in proparoxytones is close in Brazil, and is open in most of so-called standard Portuguese. To be sure, Candido de Figueiredo considers this open quality limited to Lisbon and Entre Minho e Douro, and feels that the general phonetic tendency, from Algarve to Tris-osMontes, is to close the vowel. Accordingly he indicates many of these vowels as close, bearing a circumflex accent, in his Diciondrio da Lingua Portuguesa. However, his limits are certainly too narrow. Furthermore, since the open quality prevails in the capital and in much of the standard Portuguese region, other dictionaries published in Portugal indicate such e's as open and they are generally found in the modern spelling of Portugal bearing the acute accent:

On a Method of Calculating the Present Values of Prospective Pensions Based on Salary, and the Expected Amounts of the Future Pension Payments

The method of calculating the values of prospective pensions which I am about to describe differs in some respects from those given in the standard papers on the subject, and will be found, I think, to possess advantages of its own. I shall deal with its application to the case of pensions based on salaries, when the amount of the pension is a uniform percentage of salary for each year of service taken account of.I have followed Mr. Manly in the use of the following symbols (see his paper of 1901—J.I.A. xxxvi, 209), namely, lx to denote the number living and remaining on the active list at age x as given in the Service Table, and Dx and Nx to correspond; rx to denote the number retiring from failure of health between ages x and x + 1, sx to denote the salary receivable between ages x and x + 1, and Dsx to denote Dx X sx. When however lx, Dx, Nx, or Dsx have a circumflex accent, these symbols have the ordinary meanings, and the functions are based respectively on the Pensioners Mortality Table. I have found it necessary to employ also a certain number of new symbols which are described in the Key to the Special Notation (see pp. 31, 32). I have also followed Mr. Manly in the assumptions made in the paper mentioned above, that the retirements or superannuations applicable to any year of age take place at the end of the year, and that the pension commences at the same time and is payable yearly thereafter.

Circumflex Accent

Journal Article Circumflex Accent Get access Edward Latham Edward Latham 161, Friends' Road, East Croydon Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Notes and Queries, Volume s9-X, Issue 260, 20 December 1902, Page 494, https://doi.org/10.1093/nq/s9-X.260.494b Published: 20 December 1902