Cambios de acento en español

Abstract

This article studies the direction and significance of three outstanding forms of accent change in Spanish: first, that represented by intérvalo, méndigo, aureOla, penAlti; second, the change seen in cAido, mAiz; and third, that shown by váyamos, véngamos. For this purpose, we reject the old Nebrija accent classification (llana, aguda, esdrújula), which does not allow the direction of accent-change to be identified, and, in light of this, we forward the proposal of two accent types within the structure of the word: REGULAR accent (on the second syllable of words terminating in a vowel, or else on the last syllable, if they terminate in a consonant or tonic vowel) and IRREGULAR accent (on the third syllable of words terminating in a vowel, or else on the second syllable, if they terminate in a consonant). In order to demarcate certain accent changes, and to justify others, we review the conditions of Spanish accentuation: first, unstressed inflectional constituent; second, the three-syllable window; third, sensitivity to quantity; fourth, the domain of stress assignment is the word; fifth, maintaining the original accent or regular adaptation on the. The study concludes that changes not determined by any of these conditions, of the three types previously described (intérvalo, cAido, vAyamos), either tend towards regularisation or else, when there is alternation, a regular pattern—with greater or lesser extension and diffusion—is always present. A secondary consequence of some of these phenomena is that they accredit the old thesis of P. Henríquez Ureña against the assuming systematic apparent Andalucismo of American Spanish.