The Hebrew language is generally regarded as quite destitute of compound words. It possesses, nevertheless, something at least closely akin to them in (what are called) nouns in regimen. Being without a genitive case, or any particle devoted to the same purpose as the English preposition 01; they make up for this by sounding two words as if in combination. The former word loses its accent, and thereby often incurs a shortening and obscura tion of its vowels; the voice hurrying on to the latter. This may he illustrated by the English pronunciation of ship of war, man of war, man az arms, phrases which, by repetition, have in spirit become single words, the first accent being lost. Many such exist in our language, though unregis tered by grammarians—in fact, even in longer phrases the phenomenon is observable. Thus, Secretary at Wir, Court of Queen'sBench, have very audibly but one predominating accent, on the last syllable. So, in Hebrew, from a vision, comes ;-19+ vision of the T :IT night (Job xx. 8). That every such case is fairly to be regarded as a compound noun was remarked by Dr. Campbell of Aberdeen, who urged that otherwise, in Isaiah ii. 20, we ought to render the words ' the idols of his silver ;' whereas, in fact, the exact representation of the Hebrew in Greek is not erScaXa cirkdipmz-at'n-o0, but, so to say, clryvpci&Aa at). roil In Greek compounds the position of the accent is sometimes a very critical matter in dis tinguishing active and passive meanings of epithets. Thus, korpoKropos means mother-slain , or slain by one's mother ; while /.01TpOKT6POS is mother-slaying, or slaying one's mother. Such distinctions, how ever, seem to have been confined to a very small class of compounds.
Sense of a simple word modified by the Accent.— It is familiarly remarked in our English grammars, that (in words of Latin origin, generally imported from French) we often distinguish a verb from a noun by putting the accent on the penultimate syllable of the noun and the ultimate of the verb. Thus, we say, an insult, to insult; a contest, to contest; etc. etc. The distinction is so useful, that in doubtful cases it appears desirable to abide by the rule, and to say (as many persons do say) a perfume, to pezjiime; dOtails, to detail; the contents of a book, to content; etc. It is certainly curious that the very same law of accent pervades the Hebrew language, as discriminating the simplest triliteral noun and verb. Thus, we have melek, king; -*n, mcilOk, he ruled. In the Greek IT language the number of nouns is very considerable in which the throwing of the accent on the last syllable seriously alters the sense; as, Tp6ros, a manner ; rporas, the leather of an oar : flu/des, anger or mind; Otilhas, garlic : Kpivcov, judging ; a lily-bed : azpor, a shoulder ; clzp.ds, cruel. A very extensive vocabulary of such cases is appended to Scapula's Greek Lexicon.
Relation of Accent to Rhythm and Metre. Every sentence is necessarily both easier to the voice and pleasanter to the ear when the whole is broken up into symmetrical parts, with convenient pauses between them. The measure of the parts is marked out by the number of principal beats of the voice (or oratorical accents) which each clause contains ; and when these are so regulated as to attain a certain musical uniformity without betray ing art, the sentence has the pleasing rhythm of good prose. When art is not avowed, and yet is manifest, this is unpleasing, as seeming to proceed from affectation and insincerity. When, however, the art is avowed, we call it no longer rhythm, but metre; and with the cultivation of poetry, more and more melody has been exacted of versifiers.
To the English ear, three and four beats of the voice give undoubtedly the most convenient length of clauses. Hence, in what is called poetical prose, it will be found that any particularly melodious passage, if broken up into lines or verses, yields generally either three or four beats in every verse.
For example : Where is the maid of Ar'van? Gone, as a vision of the night.
Where shall her lOver look for her ? The hill, which Once she gladdened, is desolate.' But no poetical prose, not even translations of poetry which aim at a half-metrical air, will be found to retain constantly the threefold and four fold accent. To produce abruptness, half lines, containing but two accents, are thrown in; and in smoother feeling clauses of five accents, which often tend to become the true English blank verse. All longer clauses are composite, and can be re solved into three and three, four and three, four and four, etc. To illustrate this, let us take a passage of the Old Testament in the common English translation. Habakkuk iii. 2 : O'h, Lord ! I have heard thy speech; and was afraid. O'h Lord ! Revive thy work in the midst of the years ! In the midst of the years make known ! In wrath remember mercy ! GOd came from Teman, And the HOly One from Motint Paran.
His glory covered the heavens, And the earth was fall of his praise.
His brightness was as the light, He had horns coming out of his hand, And there was the hiding of his pOwer.' etc. etc.
The accent which we have been here describing as the source of rhythm is strictly the oratorical ac cent. As this falls only on the more emphatic words of the sentence, it is decidedly strong, and, in comparison with it, all the feebler and secondary accents are unheard, or at least uncounted. Nor is any care taken that the successive accents should be at equable distances. Occasionally they occur on successive syllables ; much oftener at the distance of two, three, or four syllables. Nevertheless, this poetical rhythm, as soon as it becomes avowedly cultivated, is embryo-metre; and possibly this is the real state of the Hebrew versification. Great pains have been taken, from Gomarus in 1630 to Bellermann and Saalschbtz in recent times, to define the laws of Hebrew metre. A concise history of these attempts will be found in the Introduction to De Wette's Commentary on the Psalms. But al though the occasional use of rhyme or assonance in Hebrew seems to be more than accidental, the failure of so many efforts to detect any real metre in the old Hebrew is decisive enough to warn future inquirers against losing their labour. (See the article ParallelzIrmus in Ersch and Gruber's Encyc/opedie.) The modern Jews, indeed, have borrowed accentual metre from the Arabs : but, although there is nothing in the genius of the tongue to resist it, perhaps the fervid, practical genius of the Hebrew prophets rejected any such trammeL Repetition and amplification mark their style as too declamatory to be what we call poetry. Neverthe less, in the Psalms and lyrical passages, increasing investigation appears to prove that considerable artifice of composition has often been used (See Ewald's Poetical Books of the Old Test. vol. i.) In our own language, it is obvious to every considerate reader of poetry that the metres called anapmstic depend far more on the oratorical accent than on the vocabular (which is, indeed, their essential defect); and on this account numerous accents, which the voice really litters, are passed by as counting for nothing in the metre. We offer as a single example, the two following lines of Campbell, in which we have denoted by the flat accent those syllables the stress upon which is subordinate and extra metrum: Say, rtish'd the bOld eagle exultingly forth From his home, in the dark-relling clouds of the north ?' Such considerations, drawn entirely out of oratory, appear to be the only ones on which it is any longer useful to pursue an inquiry concerning Hebrew metres.