Re: CHAT: barbarisms (was: CHAT: Being both theologically correct and properly modern)

On Sun, 13 May 2001 01:57:12 -0400, John Cowan <cowan@...>
wrote:

>Well, after all, the Greek derivatives in English, and Greek proper names
>in English, are given Henninian stress:  "A'cropolis", "Alex'ander" (not
>"Alexan'der"), whether Across the Water or not.
I am suited to think that Western languages accentuate Greek words *as if*
they were borrowed via Latin mediation (which was true of the earliest
loans and thus established itself as a general rule). Am I wrong?

It seems to me that Spanish, Italian and Portuguese are quite consequential
in treating Greek words this way, while English is often influenced by the
French word-final accent, with subsequent stress displacements according
to its (English's) own rules (like in other borrowings from/via French).
I can't think of any loans in English retaining (seemingly) the original
Greek accentuation which would not allow for a different explanation. But
this is only a general impression which I've never really tried to verify.


Basilius