Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Barry" <nebarry AT verizon.net>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Arnaud Fournet" <fournet.arnaud AT wanadoo.fr>
To: "Barry" <nebarry AT verizon.net>; <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 07, 2010 10:30 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Blau's explanation for how ultimate stress became 
inHebrew


> > ***
> > Happens all the time in ancient Greek and Latin.
> >
> > N.E. Barry Hofstetter
> ***
>
> Barry,
>
>
> Could you please provide examples of this "happening all the time" 
> process?
>
>
> Many Thanks.

C'est pas d'probleme, mon amis (like my pseudo-French?), I love talking 
about Latin and Greek on a list devoted to Hebrew.

In Latin, the stress accent is alway remains on the first syllable of the 
word.  This rule is further qualified, however:

1) in word of three syllables or more, if all the vowels are short, the 
accent always remains on the antepenult.

2) if the penult is long in a word of three syllables or more, it gets the 
stress.

So, a`mo, but ama`mus (because the second a is long).

Now, lets take a good example that has more than one long syllable, 
*mobilitas* (both the o and a are long).  The stress accent falls on the 
antepenult (since the i of the penult is short), but the o and the a remain 
long.  Or take the genitive singular of the word:

mobilitatis

The stress accent now shifts to the penult (because that a is long) but the 
o does not shorten.

I can prove it from Greek, too, if you like.

Now, anecdote.  It is very difficult in English to have an unaccented long 
vowel.  When I was first teaching Greek, my Korean students got after me for 
pronouncing certain short syllables in Greek as though they were long vowels 
because of the stress accent.  I quickly sharpened up my pronounciation to 
have less of an "American" accent...  :)

N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Classics and Bible Instructor, TAA
http://www.theamericanacademy.net
(2010 Savatori Excellence in Education Winner)
Mentor, TNARS
http://www.tnars.net

http://my.opera.com/barryhofstetter/blog
http://mysite.verizon.net/nebarry