§ =118. B. Romanic words.= It was not till the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries that Romanic words passed in considerable numbers into the English language; and they were then accommodated to the general laws of accentuation of English. The transition, however, from Romanic to Germanic accentuation certainly did not take place at once, but gradually, and earlier in some districts and in some classes of society than in others; in educated circles undoubtedly later than amongst the common people. The accentuation of the newly introduced Romanic words thus being in a vacillating state, we easily see how the poets writing at that period in foreign even-beat rhythms, of whom Chaucer may serve as a representative, could use those words with whichever accentuation best suited their need at the moment, admitting the Romanic accentuation chiefly in rhymes, where it afforded them great facilities, and the usual Germanic accentuation mostly in the interior of the line. A few examples will suffice to illustrate this well-known fact. We arrange them in five classes according to the number of syllables in the words; the principles of metrical accentuation not being precisely identical in the several classes. =Disyllabic words.= I. Words whose final syllable is accented in French. They are used in even-beat rhythms (1) with the original accentuation, e.g. _prisóun: raunsóun_ Kn. T. 317-18; _pítouslý: mercý_ ib. 91-2; _pitóus: móus_ Prol. 143-4; (2) with the accent on the first syllable according to the accentuation which had already become prevalent in ordinary English speech, e.g. _This prísoun cáusede me_ Kn. T. 237; _With hérte pítous_ ib. 95; _But wé beséken mércy ánd socóur_ ib. 60. II. Words having in French the accent on the first syllable, the last syllable being unaccented. These words, partly substantives or adjectives, as _people_, _nombre_, _propre_, partly verbs, as _praye_, _suffre_, _crie_ (in which case the accentuation of the sing. of the present tense prevails), are always used in verse with the original accentuation, the second unaccented syllable either (1) forming a full thesis of the verse, as in _the péple préseth thíderward_ Kn. T. 1672; _bý his própre gód_ Prol. 581, or (2) being elided or slurred and forming only part of the thesis, as in _the nómbre and éek the cáuse_ ib. 716; _and crýe as hé were wóod_ ib. 636. As a rule also the original and usual accent is retained by disyllabic words containing an unaccented prefix, as in _accord_, _abet_, _desyr_, _defence_, &c. Only words composed with the prefix _dis-_ occur with either accentuation, as _díscreet_ and _discréet_.