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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.