Читать книгу Latin for Beginners - BENJAMIN L. D’OOGE - Страница 16

«14.» Words of two syllables are accented on the first, as «mēn´-sa», «Cae´-sar».

«15.» Words of more than two syllables are accented on the penult if the penult is long. If the penult is short, accent the antepenult. Thus «mo-nē´-mus», «re´-gi-tur», «a-gri´-co-la», «a-man´-dus».

NOTE. Observe that the position of the accent is determined by the length of the syllable and not by the length of the vowel in the syllable. (Cf. §13.2, Note.)

«16.» Certain little words called enclit´ics[5] which have no separate existence, are added to and pronounced with a preceding word. The most common are «-que», and; «-ve», or; and «-ne», the question sign. The syllable before an enclitic takes the accent, regardless of its quantity. Thus «populus´que», «dea´que», «rēgna´ve», «audit´ne».

[Footnote 5: Enclitic means leaning back, and that is, as you see, just what these little words do. They cannot stand alone and so they lean back for support upon the preceding word.]