ACCENT. — Etymologically, accent comes from *ad cantus*, as something pertaining to music. In fact, to accent a word tonically is equivalent to giving it a certain melody that progresses from the beginning to the syllable called tonic. Therefore, isolated monosyllables do not have a proper accent.
The history of Latin accent must be considered in three stages: in the pagan or classical era, in the Christian era, and also in the transition from one to the other. The period that most interests liturgical Latin is the third, i.e., the 4th century; at that time, the accent, while retaining its melodic character—though without entirely disappearing a certain initial force in the first syllable and eliminating what is conventional in considering the prosodic weight of syllables—becomes slightly intensive; in perfect agreement with its classical melodic character, it rises with agility, giving life and melody to the entire word. Thus, one may say, the liturgical melody is created. The tonic accent influences the verbal melody, and this, adapted to melodic development with a discreet gradation, forms the phrases, members of sentences, and the entire sentence, to which it lends a graceful, solemn, and absolutely Roman "arched" design. It is in the specifically tonic cadences that the accent exerts its influence. There are simple tonic cadences, in which it emphasizes the last or the last two accents of the text; or cursive tonic cadences, when it arranges the last rhythm of the phrase imitating the oratorical *cursus*, but substituting, with the tonic force of this, the numerical quantity.