Rob wrote:
> On another note, do you know where the English accentual
> distinctions, such as accént vs. áccent and recórd vs. récord, come
> from?
To sum up a rather long and complex story, the stress in Franco-Latinate
words was essentially final (on the last full vowel) at the time they
were borrowed, but later tended to be retracted (in ways depending on
English syllable weigth). Verbs and adjectives were more likely than
nouns to retain final stress (primary or at least secondary), because
they often occurred with syllabic suffixes and inflections, e.g. record
--> recorded, recordeth, recording, recorder, and consequently the final
syllable had fewer opportunities to become "extrametrical".
Piotr