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Syllable accent change over time
1. Syllable accent change over time
In many languages, the syllabic accent or stress of a part of the word may change over time.
There is a tendency, in English, to stress a later part of a phrase or word and, is it becomes accepted and well known, move the stress the beginning of the word.
Some of these changes in English have happened in recent times.
Examples: content, rebel, record, separate
2. Nouns and verbs
In many English words, a noun may have the stress on the first syllable while the verb may have the stress on the last syllable.
rebel: The rebel would always rebel against authority.
record: We need to record the record for later use.
separate: We need to separate them into separate rooms.
content: I am content to learn the content of the course.
Can you think of any other examples?
In English, many descriptive nouns for new things often start with the accent on the second (or last) syllable, but, over time, the accent moves to the first syllable. Sometimes the words get shortened.
Chinese food (from 1970's Mary Tyler Moore episode).
pizza pie to pizza
cellular phone to cell phone
air conditioning
data processing
Can you think of any other examples?
Does anyone remember any other words?
Elevator
Telegraph
Television
3. Parts of speech
This makes
POS (Part of Speech) analysis difficult as the same spelling can be a noun or a verb.
Some languages, such as modern Greek, require that accents be marked as part of the spelling which avoids this ambiguity.
4. Examples
Here are some examples. Many start with "
re".
Accent on first syllable is a noun
Accent on second (or later) syllable is a verb
| Accent changes |
| content |
record |
reproof |
| rebel |
record |
research |
| recall |
refuse |
separate |
5. Examples
A sign on a trash truck says "We refuse no refuse". This is a type of "trash talk".
"We need to record the broken record". Do younger people know the meaning of a musical "record"?
"We need separate ways to separate the parts".
"The rebel decided to rebel". This could be a statement that "begs the question" (assumes the conclusion).
6. Other words
Here are some other words.
"resolve"
"excuse"
7. Natural Language Parsing examples
NLP (Natural Language Processing) software systems including
POS analysis, can be used to attempt to automatically analyze unstructured text.
To stimulate ideas, here is some output from some available
NLP and
POS systems.
The default settings were used. There are many ways to customize and tweak the system depending on the domain of application.
8. Words over time
9. Content
The English word "
content" (accent on second syllable) has the implication of being "
sufficient" in "
oneself".
Accent on first syllable: of what something consists that is enclosed by some bounds
Accent on second syllable: feeling satisfied without a change needed
10. Coining a customary distribution law of iniquity
The ancient Greek words for "
pasture", "
law", "
nomad", "
coin" are related. The progression appears to be from a pasture, to a distribution of sheep, to the rules for such distributions, to representations of such wealth as coins, etc.
The ancient Greek word "νέμω" ≈ "distribute, pasture, graze" (as a verb)
The ancient Greek word "νομός" ≈ "pasture" (as a noun, accent on second syllable)
The ancient Greek word "νόμος" ≈ "custom, law" (as a noun, accent on first syllable)
Some English words made from this word include "
economy", "
astronomy", "
Deuteronomy", "
numismatics", etc.
Interestingly, the word the
KJV (King James Version) translates as "
iniquity" is a negation of that word for "
law".
11. End of page
