Fòram na Gàidhlig

I came across the following sentence:

Richard Cox wrote:Gabhaidh am beum tàladh air dheireadh ann am facail le ro-leasachan anns a bheil fuaimreag fhada (mìcheantach < mì-chiatach; aocoltach < ao-coltach; dìochuimhnich < dì-chuimhnich), agus tha corra ainm-àite ann far a bheil am beum air gluasad air dheireadh, ach 's e fuaimreag fhada a tha anns a' chiad lide anns gach suidheachadh an seo.

Do I understand that correctly, i.e. does it mean that

(1) in mì-chiatach, eu-coltach and dìochuimhnich the stress is on the second syllable? (I was surprised by dìochuimhnich in particular)
(2) if a word starts with a short-vowel prefix (or indeed any short-vowel syllable), I can safely expect the stress to be on the first syllable?

I also find this confusing, including the examples.

I thought in hyphenated words with prefixes (long or short), there was double-stress, on the prefix and on the first syllable after the hyphen anyway, as the second part is a word in its own right.

gu mì-fhortanach / ro-ràdh / neo-chinnteach etc.

If the prefixes have become subsumed into the word, they become the first syllable and are the only stress.

eucoir/ dìmeas

like compound nouns:

ban-altram, but banaltram.


Have I had that wrong all these years?

No, you got it right, I think he meant to use air thoiseach rather than air dheireadh.

In (properly) hyphenated words, stress has usually shifted to one of the elements only but can be on both, it's all a bit of a mess. But the historic tendency without any doubt is stress moving to the first syllable and the words fusing, usually but not always causing lengthening of the first syllable and each unstressed syllable being reducing by one degree.

Thanks to you both, it's clearer to me now. Just one more question: what are the degrees in "reducing by one degree" - diphthong -> long vowel -> short vowel -> schwa?

diphthong -> long vowel -> short vowel -> schwa?

Shin aighead e but remember it's a rule of thumb