View source for Proparoxytone

{{Short description|In linguistics, stress or a high accent on the third-to-last syllable}}
In linguistics, a '''proparoxytone''' ({{langx|el|{{math|προπαροξύτονος}}}}, {{Transliteration|el|proparoxýtonos}}) is a word with either [[stress (linguistics)|stress]] (in stress-based languages) or a high accent (in languages with a [[pitch accent]]) on the [[antepenult]]imate syllable (that is, the third-to-last syllable). Examples of this in [[English language|English]] are the words words "cinema" and "operational". It contrasts with [[paroxytone]] (stress or a high accent on the [[penult]]imate {{emdash}} second-to-last {{emdash}} syllable), and [[oxytone]] (stress or a high accent on the [[Ultima (linguistics)|ult]]imate {{emdash}} last {{emdash}} syllable).

In English, most nouns of three or more syllables are proparoxytones, except in words ending in ''–tion'' or ''–sion'', which tend to be paroxytones (''ope'''ra'''tion'', ''equivo'''ca'''tion''). This tendency is so strong in English that it frequently leads to the stress on derived words being on a different part of the root. For example, the root ph'''o'''tograph gives rise to the nouns phot'''o'''graphy and phot'''o'''grapher, ''f'''a'''mily'' → ''fam'''i'''liar'' and ''fam'''i'''lial''. (In many dialects of English, the ''i'' in ''f'''a'''mily'' is even [[Schwa#American English|deleted]] entirely, and still has the stress in ''fam'''i'''lial'' and ''fam'''i'''liar.'')

In medieval Latin lyric poetry, a ''proparoxytonic'' line or half-line is one where the antepenultimate syllable is stressed, as in the first half of the verse "Estuans intrinsecus || ira vehementi."

== Mentions in literature ==
[[Ernst Robert Curtius]] offers an interesting use of the term in a footnote (Ch. 8, n. 33) of his ''European Literature in the Latin Middle Ages''. He is commenting on this passage from [[Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel]]'s didactic poem on grammar:

: {{lang|la|Partibus inferior jacet interiectio cunctis}}
: {{lang|la|Ultima namque sedet et sine laude manet.}}

Here is Curtius' note:
<blockquote>
Sad is the lot of the interjection, for of all the parts of speech it has the lowest place. There is none to praise it." On the way from Latin to French, the penultimate syllable of the proparoxytone succumbed. Mallarmé was so touched by this that he wrote a [[prose poem]] on the "Death of the Penultimate" ({{lang|fr|Le Démon de l'analogie}} in {{lang|fr|Divagations}}). It ends: {{lang|fr|Je m'enfuis, bizarre, personne condamnée à porter probablement le deuil de l'explicable Penultième.}} (Eerie, I flee: likely some (no-)one doomed to wear weeds for the explainable second-last.)
</blockquote>
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Stephan Dedalus in [[James Joyce]]'s [[Ulysses (novel)]] uses the term to comment on the time being eleven o'clock, with eleven being a proparoxytone:

:"Why striking eleven? Proparoxyton. Moment before the next, Lessing says."<ref>Joyce, James.  ''Ulysses.''  Vintage Books: New york. 1990.  Page 559.</ref> -->

== See also ==
* [[Barytone]]
* [[Oxytone]]
* [[Paroxytone]]
* [[Penult]]
* [[Perispomenon]]
* [[Properispomenon]]
* [[Stress (linguistics)]]

[[Category:Phonology]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek]]
[[Category:Stress (linguistics)]]


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