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When you enter a protest or make a contest over it the accent is on the first syllable: a protest or a contest.

But when you use either word as a verb, you may accent either the first syllable or the second: I protest or I protest or Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

How is it that the verb form is different from the noun form? How is it that the verb form offers a choice, rather than being fixed one way or the other?

It's understandable that a word might coincidentally have such unusual variations, but it's hard to believe the same thing could happen, by coincidence, for two similar words. Surely there must be some common history.
 
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Picture of Kalleh
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Now, wordnerd, you are having a time with these words "protest" and "contest," aren't you? I just answered your "pro" and "con" question. Wink

I am just taking a guess, but would the pronunciations differ in order to distinguish between the verb and noun forms of the words?
 
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Picture of jheem
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Just an observation, but aren't contests multilateral and protests unilateral?
 
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I think the initial stress on the verbs is a recent development, a levelling of the difference. In some words the final stress on the verb sounds a bit old-fashioned: e.g. combat. But there are many, many pairs that differ like this, such as convict, convert, produce, rebel, import, etc. etc.

Some variation exists: so I say reSEARCH for both noun and verb, and REsearch sounds American, but I don't know which is original.

I have always presumed, though I don't know if it's true, that the difference must have arisen in Middle English when verbs still had an inflectional suffix: importen, convicten, etc. Then a constant rule of penultimate stress would give noun IMport, verb imPORTen.
 
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Maybe it is because I'm from the Mid-West, but I'll say protest either way. If I was to say "I protest...", I would emphasize the second syllable, but for most cases, I emphasize the first. I'll never emphasize the second syllable of contest.

This is an interesting point, being from the Mid-West I'm exposed to pronunciations from different parts of the country, which could lead to my multiple ways of saying the same word. "Either" is a word I'll pronounce either way, depending on some unknown factor.
 
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Hmmm, that's interesting, Sean. I, too, am from the midwest (Wisconsin originally, but Chicago for a long time). I agree with you on "protest," I think. However, I do say "contest, for example, if I were to contest a parking ticket.

I never say either with a long "i." I like it better, but I'd feel as though I were putting on airs.
 
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Picture of jerry thomas
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Should that word be pronounced "either," or "either" ?

After mulling it over for a number of decades I have reached the inevitable conclusion that either is correct.
 
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However, I do say "contest, for example, if I were to contest a parking ticket.


I don't know that I've ever said the word that way, or even used it in that sense. I would most likely "protest a parking ticket". I think that that meaning of "contest" has been overrode in my lexicon by "protest".
 
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Now, you are probably too young to have ever said this, but how would you say you are "contesting a will?"
 
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Picture of Richard English
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There are several words like this of which "record" (the noun) and "record" (the verb) spring immediately to mind.


Richard English
 
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