Enclitics and accent

[Vadilius]

As I know, when the postpositive conjunction "-que" is added, the accent is placed so, as if it were a single word. When the preceding syllable is long, there is no difficulty to place it: "senatus populu'sque romanus" and so on. But where must the accent be placed in such cases as "corpus animaque"? (It is nominative; so the "i" and last "a" both are short.) I’m not sure that "ani'maque" is correct.

[benissimus]

The accent is placed on the syllable preceding the enclitic particle. I remember wondering this as well when seeing "sapientiaque" and how unusually Spanish it sounded with an accent on a short "i".

[Skylax]

[quote author=Vadilius link=board=3;threadid=161;start=0#781 date=1055265083]<br />AI’m not sure that "ani'maque" is correct.<br />[/quote]<br /><br />It's anima'que.<br />It is the same with the enclitics -ve, -ne, -ce, -met : the accent is placed on the syllabe preceding the enclitic, even if it is a short syllabe.<br /><br />Exceptions : 'itaque, 'utique, 'undique : each adverb is felt as a single word, not as ita+que etc.<br /><br />Regards,<br />Fernand

[Vadilius]

Oh, many thanks!<br /><br />But it seems very strange for me to place the accent on the short penultima. Perhaps anybody know, what is the reason for this? (Some historical changes? Or even late medieval tradition?)

[Skylax]

I believe you must only consider it as a special way to place the accent due to the presence of an enclitic. A way to say "Hey, there is an enclitic here !"<br /><br />See also http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/pt ... ead%3D%238<br /><br />(in the middle of a long page : find "accent")

[Vadilius]

That Perseus' link doesn't work, but I believe that the place of accent is just before enclitics even without Perseus. But in the grammars I'd read before nothing had been written about it (you understand, all of them are Russian grammars, and I don't know, why here in Russia all the authors ignorate this feature, although the others may be described very well). Even in the very full historical investigation by Tronsky this question is ignorated too, not speaking about the explanations of its reasons. And I ask if anybody knows them - the (historical?) reasons to place the accent so that this breaks the common way to do it.