ergo

[cinefactus]

I have been listening to the Salvi Sitis podcast, which is obviously interesting to me...

He consistently accents ergo on the o rather than the e. Is ergo one of the words like adhuc, which is accented on the terminal syllable?

 

[Pacifica]

Not as far as I know. I checked Vox Latina in case I was wrong, but ergo isn't on the list given there.

 

[cinefactus]

A pity. It would be useful to have another word with a final accent!

 

[rothbard]

I have been listening to the Salvi Sitis podcast, which is obviously interesting to me...

He consistently accents ergo on the o rather than the e. Is ergo one of the words like adhuc, which is accented on the terminal syllable?

To me it sounds like the o is long, as it probably should be, rather than stressed

 

[Hector]

It isn't one of the words like adhuc, which (I think) basically everyone agrees was accented on the last syllable.

Ergo is in a category of adverbs where some sources, such as Priscian ("Siquis pronuntians dicat poné et ergó, quod apud Latinos in ultima syllaba nisi discretionis causa accentus poni non potest"), say had word-final accent for unclear reasons. But a lot of modern authors on Latin pronunciation think that this type of final stress on adverbs is an artificial pronunciation that shouldn't be adopted by speakers of reconstructed Latin.

 

[Barbarus ex Finnia]

Yes, the stress is on the first syllable and the final o is a long vowel.

Charlton's dictionary entry

 

[cinefactus]

Interesting. I wonder what the causa discretionis was—does he mean to fit the metre?

 

[Pacifica]

I googled to find the rest of the Priscian quote. According to what I found, it seems to be that the alleged switch in accent was to differentiate the preposition (or rather postposition) from the conjunction.