In linguistics, a proparoxytone ( el, προπαροξύτονος, ) is a word with stress on the antepenultimate (third last) syllable, such as the
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ...
words "cinema" and "operational". Related terms are
paroxytone
Paroxytone ( el, παροξύτονος, ') is a linguistic term for a word with stress on the penultimate syllable, that is, the second last syllable, such as the English word ''potáto'', and just about all words ending in –ic such as mús ...
(stress on the penultimate syllable) and
oxytone
An oxytone (; from the grc, ὀξύτονος, ', 'sharp-sounding') is a word with the stress on the last syllable, such as the English words ''correct'' and ''reward''. (A paroxytone
Paroxytone ( el, παροξύτονος, ') is a lingui ...
(stress on the last syllable).
In English, most nouns of three or more syllables are proparoxytones, except in words ending in ''–tion'' or ''–sion'', which tend to be paroxytones (''operation'', ''equivocation''). This tendency is so strong in English that it frequently leads to the stress on derived words being on different part of the root. For example, the root photograph gives rise to the nouns photography and photographer, ''family'' → ''familiar'' and ''familial''. (In many dialects of English, the ''i'' in ''family'' is even deleted entirely, and still has the stress in ''familial'' and ''familiar.'')
In medieval Latin lyric poetry, a ''proparoxytonic'' line or half-line is one where the antepenultimate syllable is stressed, as in the first half of the verse "Estuans intrinsecus , , ira vehementi."
Mentions in literature
Ernst Robert Curtius
Ernst Robert Curtius (; 14 April 1886 – 19 April 1956) was a German literary scholar, philologist, and Romance language literary critic, best known for his 1948 study ''Europäische Literatur und Lateinisches Mittelalter'', translated in Eng ...
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
monk of prose poem on the "Death of the Penultimate" ( in ). It ends: (Eerie, I flee: likely some (no-)one doomed to wear weeds for the explainable second-last.)
Oxytone
An oxytone (; from the grc, ὀξύτονος, ', 'sharp-sounding') is a word with the stress on the last syllable, such as the English words ''correct'' and ''reward''. (A paroxytone
Paroxytone ( el, παροξύτονος, ') is a lingui ...
*
Paroxytone
Paroxytone ( el, παροξύτονος, ') is a linguistic term for a word with stress on the penultimate syllable, that is, the second last syllable, such as the English word ''potáto'', and just about all words ending in –ic such as mús ...
Perispomenon
In Ancient Greek grammar, a perispomenon () is a word with a high-low pitch contour on the last syllable, indicated in writing by a circumflex accent mark (). A properispomenon has the same kind of accent, but on the penultimate syllable.
Exam ...
Stress (linguistics)
In linguistics, and particularly phonology, stress or accent is the relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word or to a certain word in a phrase or sentence. That emphasis is typically caused by such properties as ...