In my recent commencement of learning the Latin language, I've come across a bit of a confusion regarding accent, that is, the syllable of a word that is to be stressed. I've looked at two different sources about this: Wheelock's Latin 7th edition; and A Practical Grammar of the Latin Language by George Adler.
From Wheelock's Latin:
V------------------------------------------------------------V
Words in Latin, like those in English, were pronounced with extra emphasis on one syllable (or more than one, in the case of very long words); the placement of this stress accent in Latin (unlike English) followed these strict and simple rules:
1) In a word of two syllables, the accent always falls on the first syllable.
2) In a word of three or more syllables
a) The accent falls on the next to last syllable (sometimes called the penult) if that syllable is long;
b) otherwise, the accent falls on the syllable before that.
^--------------------------------------------------^
The above rules from Wheelock's Latin were very straightforward and made sense, but then I had a look at what Adler's book had to say:
V--------------------------------------------------V
I. Accent is the peculiar tone or emphasis with which a particular syllable of a word is uttered.
Every Latin word has one principal or leading accent, and only one.
The leading accent is either the circumflex ( ^ ) or the acute ( ' ).
There is also a subordinate accent called the grave (`). But this denotes rather the absence of the principal accent, and is scarcely used. In words of several syllables, the last syllable but one is called the penult or penultima, and the last but two, the antepenult or antepenultima. The place of the accent is determined by the following laws : —
1. Monosyllables have the circumflex, when their vowel is long by nature, and the acute, when their vowel is short by nature or long by position.
2. In words of two syllables the accent is always on the penult, and it is
a) circumflex, when the penult is long by nature and the last syllable short; but
b) acute under all other circumstances
3. Words of three or more syllables are accented either on the penult or on the antepenult : —
a) When the penult is short, the antepenult has invariably the acute.
b) When the penult is long by nature and the last syllable short, the former has the circumflex.
c) When the penult is long by position, or when the last syllable is likewise long, it has the acute.
4. The antepenult is the limit of the accent, and polysyllables are all treated like words of three.
5. Some words are entirely unaccented, as ne, que, re, ce. But these never appear alone, being always appended to other words, of which they often change the place of the accent.
6. The quantity of a word being given (as it commonly is in Lexicons), its accent can be easily determined according to one of the above rules. — The beginner should carefully distinguish between quantity and accent, which in Latin are not only distinct, but often apparently at variance. The former is the principle of versification, the latter the indispensable condition of a correct pronunciation and the very soul of living discourse.
^--------------------------------------------------^
This is too much for my fresh brain to handle!
In all seriousness though, I see that the rules stated in Adler's book are pretty much the same as stated in Wheelock's, except that Adler's has rules for two types of accents; Wheelock's only mentions an accent of a simple stress on a particular syllable of a word. Why is this? And exactly what is the difference between an acute and a circumflex accent anyway?
