PREFACE

TO THE

TERMINATIONAL VOCABULARY.

TAKING a retrospective view of language, or surveying it in its terminations, affords not only a new but an advantageous view of all languages. The necessity of this view induced me, several years ago, to arrange the whole English language according to its terminations; and this arrangement I found of infinite use to me in consulting the analogies of our tongue. A conviction of its utility made me desirous of arranging the Greek and Latin proper names in the same manner, and more párticularly as the pronunciation of these languages depends more on the termination of words than any other we are acquainted with. Of such utility is this arrangement supposed to be in the Greek language, that the son of the famous Hoogeven, who wrote on the Greek particles, has actually printed such a dictionary, which only waits for a preface to be published. The labour of such a selection and arrangement must have been prodigious; nor is the task I have undertaken in the present work a slight one; but the idea of rendering the classical pronunciation of proper names still more easy encouraged me to persevere in the labour, however dry and fatiguing.

I flattered myself I had already promoted this end, by dividing the proper names into syllables upon analogical principles; but hoped I could still add to the facility of recollecting their pronunciation by the arrangement here adopted; which,

in the first place, exhibits the accent and quantity of every word by its termination.

In the next place, it shows the extent of this accentuation, by producing, at one view, all the words differently accented, by which means may be formed the rule and the exception.

Thirdly, when the exceptions are but few, and less apt to be regarded,―by seeing them contrasted with the rule, they are imprinted more strongly on the memory, and are the more easily recollected. Thus, by seeing that Sperchius, Xenophontius, and Darius, are the only words of that very numerous termination which have the accent on the penultimate; we are at perfect ease about all the rest.

Fourthly, by seeing that all words ending in enes have universally the antepenultimate accent, we easily recollect that the pronunciation of Eumenes with the accent on the penultimate is radically wrong, and is only tolerated because adopted by some respectable writer's. Thus, too, the numerous termination in ades is seen to be perfectly antepenultimate; and the ambiguous termination in ides is freed in some measure from its intricacy, by seeing the extent of both forms contrasted. This contrast, without being obliged to go to Greek etymologies, shows at one view when this termination has the accent on the penultimate i, as in Tydides; and when it transfers the accent on the antepenultimate, as in Thucydides; which depends entirely on the quantity of the original word from which these patronymics are formed.

And, lastly, when the number of words pronounced by a different accent are nearly equal, we can at least find some way of recollecting their several accentuations better than if they were promiscuously mingled with all the rest of the words in the language. By frequently repeating them as they stand together, the ear will gain a habit of placing the accent properly, without knowing why it does so. In short, if Labbe's Catholici Indices, which is in the hands of all the learned, be useful for readily finding the accent and quantity of proper names, the present Index cannot fail to be much more so, as it not only associates

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them by their accent and quantity, but according to their termi nation also; and by this additional association it must necessarily render any diversity of accent more easily perceived and remembered.

To all which advantages it may be added, that this arrangement has enabled me to point out the true sound of every termination; by which means those who are totally unacquainted with the learned languages will find themselves instructed in the true pronunciation of the final letters of every word, as well as its accent and quantity.

It need scarcely be observed, that in the following Index almost all words of two syllables are omitted: for, as dissyllables in the Greek and Latin languages are always pronounced with the accent on the first, it was needless to insert them. The same may be observed of such words as have the vowel in the penultimate syllable followed by two consonants: for in this case, unless the former of these consonants was a mute, and the latter a liquid, the penultimate vowel was always long, and consequently always had the accent. This analogy takes place in our pronunciation of words from the Hebrew; which, with the exceptions of some few that have been anglicised, such as Bethlehemite, Nazarene, &c. have the accent, like the Greek and Latin words, either on the penultimate or antepenultimate syllable.

It might have been expected that I should have confined myself to the insertion of proper names alone, without bringing in the gentile adjectives, as they are called, which are derived from them. This omission would, undoubtedly, have saved me immense trouble; but these adjectives, being sometimes used as substantives, made it difficult to draw the line; and as the analogy of accentuation was, in some measure, connected with these adjectives, I hoped the trouble of collecting and arranging them would not be entirely thrown away.

TERMINATIONAL VOCABULARY

OF

GREEK and LATIN PROPER NAMES.

A A

Accent the Antepenultimate.

ABAA*, Nausicaa.

BA

Accent the Antepenultimate.

Ababa, Desudaba, Alaba, Allaba, Aballaba, Cillaba, Adeba, Abnoba, Onoba, Arnoba, Ausoba, Hecuba, Gelduba, Corduba, Voluba, Rutuba.

ACA ECA +ICA OCA UCA YCA

Accent the Penultimate.

Cleonica, Thessalonica, Noctiluca, Donuca.

Accent the Antepenultimate.

Ithaca, Andriaca, Malaca, Tabraca, Mazaca, Seneca, Cyrenaïca, Belgica, Georgica, Cabalica, Italica, Maltilica, Bellica, Laconica, Leonica, Marica, Marmarica, Conimbrica, Merobrica, Mirobrica, Cetobrica, Anderica, America, Africa, Arborica, Aremorica, Armorica, Norica, Tetrica, Asturica, Illyrica, Nasi

* As the accent is never on the last syllable of Greek or Latin proper names, the final a must be pronounced as in English words of this termination; that is, nearly as the interjection ah!—See Rule 7 prefixed to the Initial Vocabulary.

+ Of all the words ending in ica, Cleonica and Thessalonica are the only two which have the penultimate accent.-See Rule the 29th prefixed to the Initial Vocabulary, and the words Andronicus and Sopbrenicus.