Proparoxytone is a
linguisticLinguistics is the scientific study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of meaning...
term for a word with stress on the antepenultimate syllable, that is, the last but two,
e.g the
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
words
acromegaly and
operational. Related terms are
paroxytoneParoxytone is a linguistic term for a word with stress on the penultimate syllable, that is, the syllable before the last syllable, e.g, the English word canasta...
(stress on the last but one) and
oxytoneAn oxytone is a word with the stress on the last syllable, such as the English words correct and reward. A paroxytone is stressed on the penultimate syllable. A proparoxytone is stressed on the antepenultimate syllable....
(accented on the last one).
Ernst Robert CurtiusErnst Robert Curtius was a German literary scholar, a philologist and Romance language literary critic....
offers an interesting use of the term in a footnote (Ch. 8, n. 33) of his
European Literature in the Latin Middle Ages.
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Proparoxytone is a
linguisticLinguistics is the scientific study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of meaning...
term for a word with stress on the antepenultimate syllable, that is, the last but two,
e.g the
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
words
acromegaly and
operational. Related terms are
paroxytoneParoxytone is a linguistic term for a word with stress on the penultimate syllable, that is, the syllable before the last syllable, e.g, the English word canasta...
(stress on the last but one) and
oxytoneAn oxytone is a word with the stress on the last syllable, such as the English words correct and reward. A paroxytone is stressed on the penultimate syllable. A proparoxytone is stressed on the antepenultimate syllable....
(accented on the last one).
Ernst Robert CurtiusErnst Robert Curtius was a German literary scholar, a philologist and Romance language literary critic....
offers an interesting use of the term in a footnote (Ch. 8, n. 33) of his
European Literature in the Latin Middle Ages. He is commenting on this passage from
Smaragdus of Saint-MihielSmaragdus of Saint-Mihiel was a Benedictine monk of St Mihiel Abbey, near Verdun. He was a significant writer of homilies, and on the Rule of St Benedict.-Life:...
's didactic poem on grammar:
- Partibus inferior jacet interiectio cunctis
- Ultima namque sedet et sine laude manet.
Here is Curtius' note:
"Sad is the lot of the interjection, for of all the parts of speech it has the lowest place. There is none to praise it." On the way from Latin to French the penultimate syllable of the proparoxytone succumbed. Mallarmé was so touched by this, that he wrote a prose-poem on the "Death of the Penultimate" (Le Démon de l'analogie in Divagations). It ends: Je m'enfuis, bizarre, personne condamné à porter probablement le deuil de l'explicable Penultième." Grammar too has its tragedies.
See also
- Barytone (syllable)
- Oxytone
An oxytone is a word with the stress on the last syllable, such as the English words correct and reward. A paroxytone is stressed on the penultimate syllable. A proparoxytone is stressed on the antepenultimate syllable....
- Paroxytone
Paroxytone is a linguistic term for a word with stress on the penultimate syllable, that is, the syllable before the last syllable, e.g, the English word canasta...
- Penult
In linguistics, the penult is the penultimate syllable of a word; that is, the second-to-last syllable. For example, the main stress falls on the penult in such English words as banána, and Mississíppi. The penult follows the antepenult and precedes the ultimate syllable...
- Perispomenon
- Preantepenult
- Proparoxytone
Proparoxytone is a linguistic term for a word with stress on the antepenultimate syllable, that is, the last but two, e.g the English words acromegaly and operational. Related terms are paroxytone and oxytone .Ernst Robert Curtius offers an interesting use of the term in a footnote Proparoxytone...
- Properispomenon
- Ultima (syllable)
- Stress (linguistics)
In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense....