Abbott held the view that the accent of the common people continued to be one of stress, but educated Romans developed an accent in which pitch predominated. The question of the nature of the Classical Latin accent was initially argued for cogently in English by Abbott, in his paper “The Accent in Vulgar and Formal Latin” (Classical Philology, II ppp 444 ff). Earlier Roman Grammarians assert quite explicitly that Latin used a tonal accent, similar to the Greek, and only from the fourth century onward to Roman grammarians talk about relative loudness, as opposed to pitch. There is no empirical scientific evidence for this opinion, only evidence that weighs against.Ĭlassical Latin had both a stress accent, with tonal differentiation, and vowel length distinctions. I am not sure with which linguists this canard arose – for canard it surely is.
Yet one hears this recited again and again by Classicists, educated linguists and laymen alike, so often has this notion been repeated, that is has taken on authority simply by dint of repition. In other words, a clear strong stress accent and a vowel system based on phonological length distinctions are not ipso facto incompatible. One major plank of the argument regarding Classical Latin and tone versus stress, (Vulgar Latin, J Herman) is defeated by Hungarian, which “has a very strong stress accent involving intensity, while at the same time a whole operating system of vowels based on distinctions in length”. Herman and Wright in “Vulgar Latin” also hold the view that the accent in Classical times was a tone accent (pg 36). This accent has similarities to the Greek accent, and probably developed in imitation of the Greek recitation of the Laws to a chanted tune.īennet, along with David (see below), both of whom I regard as authoritative on this matter, come down in favour of the "Greek" accent. (Manuum variis motibus altitudinem, depressionem, flexus vocis significabant) Talmudic texts were printed with accents for this tonal singing, until well into the mediaeval period. Indeed, the Jews adopted the Greek system, including the method for manually marking the tones.
Further evidence exists in the adoption of the tonal accent into Hebrew recitiation. Cicero himself speaks of the musicality of Latin, likening Spoken Latin to a form of singing. In fact, the survival of the pitch accent, albeit in modified form, in Italian, Catalan and Sardinian, provides evidence that educated Romans adopted it into their Latin. This would be like saying that the musical accent of Italian was “ a minor detail of Italian”. Allen states that the accent is “a minor detail of the Greek”. Allen, in his “Vox Latina”, dismisses the idea that Latin had a pitch accent, despite the description of this accent in great detail by a number of Roman grammarians writing prior to the fourth century AD.
0 kommentar(er)
