If Penelope is pronounced Pen-el-o-pe,why isnt Antelope pronounced An-telo-pe,or vice versa?
by 
Tel UK-fishing for clues
ANSWERS: 1
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Linguistic convention, mostly. Both have roots in Attic Greek (Penelope was Odysseus's wife in Homer). Since the last syllable in her name is a long vowel, it is customary to restrict the accent to the final or the second-to-last syllable in Greek. The word Antelope has stronger roots in Old French and Latin, which allegedly can also be traced back to Greek. However, the word Antelope in ancient Greek is of unknown origin or meaning.
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