The
last word is not always understood. At any rate Halliwell-Phillips,
referring to a well-known story of Shakespeare's youth, says that the
poet probably attended the theatre 'in some equine capacity'. As it
is agreed that 'bovine' and 'equine' lengthen the former vowel, we
ought by analogy to say 'c[=a]nine', as probably most people do.
Words of more than two syllables have the stress on the antepenultima
and the vowel is short, as in 'libertine', 'adulterine', but of
course '[=u]terine'. When heavy consonants bring the stress on to
the penultima, the _i_ is shortened, as in 'clandest[)i]n(e)',
'intest[)i]n(e)', and so in like disyllables, as 'doctr[)i]n(e)'. The
modern words 'morphin(e)' and 'strychnin(e)', coined, the one from
Morpheus and the other from the Greek name of the plant known to
botanists as _Withania somnifera_, correctly follow 'doctrine' in
shortening the _i_, though another pronunciation is sometimes heard.
STEMS IN -TUDIN. These shorten the antepenultima, as 'plenitude',
'solitude', with the usual exceptions, such as 'fortitude'.
STEMS IN -TION. These words retain the suffix, which in early days
was disyllabic, as it sometimes is in Shakespeare, for instance in
Portia's
Before a friend of this descripti['o]n
Shall lose a hair through Bassanio's fault.
Thus they came under the 'alias' rule, and what is now the penultimate
vowel is long unless it be _i_.
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