Hello Adam,
> i'm doing well with the pronounciation of the
> individual letters and syllables (i think), but i'm never sure where
> in the word to place the accent.
There's no exact information on where the Pali accent was placed in
the ancient times. Wilhelm Geiger in his book "Pali language and
literature" writes that probably it was of the same type as Sanskrit
accent. Currently Sanskrit texts are read with the Latin rules of
accent, and the Pali texts are also read with these rules:
1) On the first syllable if the word has two syllables. e.g. dhAmma.
2) On the second syllable from the end of a polysyllabic word, if that
is long. e.g. samAAdhi.
3) On the third syllable if the second from end is short. e.g. vipAssanaa.
Best regards, Dmytro