Further shortenings, however, which transform an originally four-syllable word into a disyllabic one, as in the present pronunciation of the word _conscience_, do not take lace in Middle English before the transition to the Modern English period. In Lyndesay's _Monarchie_ we meet with accentuations of this kind, as e.g.:
_The quhílk gaif sápience tó king Sálomóne._ 249.
_Be tháy contént, mak réverence tó the rést._ 36.
In a similar way adjectives ending in _-able_ and verbs ending in _-ice_, _-ye_ adapt themselves to the disyllabic rhythm, and likewise verbs ending in _-ine_ (Old French _-iner_); only it must be noticed that in the preterite and in the past participle verbs of the latter class tend to throw the accents on the antepenultimate and last syllables, e.g. _enlúminéd_, _emprísonéd_.
=Words of five syllables= almost without exception have an iambic rhythm of themselves and are used accordingly in even-beat verses, as e.g. _expériénce_; the same is the case with words which have Germanic endings, like _-ing_, _-inge_, _-nesse_, e.g. _discónfytýnge_.
The rhythmic accentuation of foreign proper names both in disyllables and in polysyllables varies. Thus we may notice the accentuations _Junó_, _Plató_, _Venús_, and, on the other hand, _Júno_, _Pláto_, _Vénus_; _Arcíte_, _Athénes_, and _Árcíte_, _Áthenes_; _Antónie_ and _Ántoníe_. Wherever in such cases level stress may help to smooth the rhythm it certainly is to be assumed in reading.
§ =121.= Modern English accentuation deviates little from that of the Old English and Middle English; the inflexional endings, however, play a much less important part; further, in many cases the Romanic accentuation of Middle English is still in existence, or at least has influence, in words of French or Latin origin. This is evident from many deviations in the rhythmic accentuation of such words from the modern accentuation which we here regard as normal, though it is to be noted that in the beginning of the Modern English epoch, i.e. in the sixteenth century, the actual accentuation in many cases was still in conformity with the earlier conditions.
Only these real and apparent anomalies are noticed here. We have first to consider the =Romanic endings= _-ace_, _-age_, _-ail_, _-el_, _-ain_, _-al_, _-ance_, _-ence_, _-ant_, _-ent_, _-er_, _-ess_ (Old French _-esse_), _-ice_, _-ile_, _-in_, _-on_, _-or_, _-our_, _-une_, _-ure_, _-y(e)_ (in disyllabic words). As the final _e_ has become mute, all these endings are monosyllabic.