The whisper, that to greatness still too near,
Perhaps, yet vibrates on his Sov'reign's ear,

and Shelley

Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory.

There are, however, verbs of no literary account which in usage
either vary in the stress or take it on the latter syllable. Such are
'locate', 'orate', 'negate', 'placate', and perhaps 'rotate'. With
most of these we could well dispense. 'Equate' is mainly a technical
word. Dictionaries seem to prefer the stress on the ultima, but some
at least of the early Victorian mathematicians said '['e]quate',
and the pronunciation is to be supported. Trisyllabic verbs throw
the stress back and shorten the penultima, as 'd['e]s[)o]late',
's['u]ff[)o]cate', 'sc['i]nt[)i]llate'. Even words with heavy double
consonants have adopted this habit. Thus where Browning has (like
Milton and Cowper)

I the Trinity ill['u]strate
Drinking water'd orange pulp,
In three sips the Arian frustrate.
While he drains his at one gulp,

it is now usual to say '['i]llustrate'.

Adjectives of this class take as early a stress as they can, as
'['o]rnate', 'p['i]nnate', 'd['e]licate', 'f['o]rtunate'. Nouns from
all these words throw the accent back and shorten or obscure all but
the penultimate vowel, as 'ignorance', 'evaporation'.

STEMS IN -IA. Here even disyllables shorten the penultima, as 'copy',
'province', while longer words throw the stress back as well as
shorten the penultima, as 'injury', 'colony', while 'ignominy' almost
lost its penultimate vowel, and therefore threw back the stress to the
first syllable. Shakespeare frankly writes the word as a trisyllable,

Thy ignomy sleep with thee in the grave.

Milton restored the lost syllable, often eliding the final vowel,
as in

Exile, or ignominy, or bonds, or pain.

Even with heavy consonants we have the early stress, as in 'industry'.
Greek words follow the same rules, as 'agony', 'melody'. Some words
of this class have under French influence been further abbreviated, as
'concord'.

Corresponding STEMS IN -IO keep the same rules. Perhaps the only
disyllable is 'study'; the shortening of a stressed _u_ shows its
immediate derivation from the old French _estudie_. Trisyllabic
examples are 'colloquy', 'ministry', 'perjury'. Many words of this
class have been further abbreviated in their passage through French.
Such are 'benefice', 'divorce', 'office', 'presage', 'suffrage',
'vestige', 'adverb', 'homici