Disyllables follow the 'apex' rule and lengthen the first
vowel, as 'agent', 'decent', 'potent'. Exceptions are 'clement' and
'present', perhaps under French influence. Words of more than two
syllables with a single consonant before the termination throw the
stress back and shorten a long penultima, as 'ignorant', 'president',
'confident', 'adjutant'. Where there are two heavy consonants, the
stress remains on the penultima, as 'consultant', 'triumphant', even
when one of the consonants is not pronounced, as 'reminiscent'. In
some cases the Latinists seem to have deliberately altered the natural
pronunciation. Thus Gower has '['a]ppara['u]nt', but the word became
'app['a]rent' before Shakespeare's time, and later introductions such
as 'adherent' followed it. What right 'adjacent' has to its long vowel
and penultimate stress I do not know, but it cannot be altered now.
STEMS ENDING IN -ATO AND -UTO. These are mostly past participles, but
many of them are used in English as verbs. It must be admitted that
the disyllabic words are not wholly constant to a principle. Those
verbs that come from _-latum_ consistently stress the last vowel, as
'dilate', 'relate', 'collate'. So does 'create', because of one vowel
following another. Of the rest all the words of any rank have the
stress on the penultima, as 'vibrate', 'frustrate', 'm['i]grate',
'c['a]strate', 'p['u]lsate', 'v['a]cate'.
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