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 up to the syllable called tonic. Therefore, isolated monosyllables do not properly have an accent. The history of the 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 era that most concerns liturgical Latin would be the third period, that is, the 4th century; at that time the accent, while preserving its melodic character—though without a certain initial force in the first syllable having entirely disappeared—and eliminating what is conventional in taking account of the prosodic weight of syllables, becomes slightly intensive; fully in accord with its classical melodic character, it rises with suppleness, giving life and melody to the entire word. Thus, one might say, liturgical melody is created. The tonic accent influences 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 especially in the tonic cadences that the accent makes its influence felt. There are simple tonic cadences, in which it brings into relief 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 tonicity of the latter, the numerical quantity.
Gregorio M. Suñol