In certain exceptional circumstances, the ability to pronounce a word is a question of life or death. The folk story is that, while searching a local girl, a French soldier tried to take advantage of the situation in a way that intensely irritated the girl's family, who were present. This episode provoked an uprising and expulsion of the French from Palermo. Inability to get their tongues around the word cost many French people their lives. Overall, one can see only advantages in being multilingual.
Language evolution contains much cultural selection and very little natural selection.
In general, shorter words are more popular than long ones, and in certain areas the preference for shortness is very pro nounced. This may be why the French have dropped the last syllable in so many words, and why their Catalan neighbors are heading the same way. When the last syllable was dropped, the penultimate became the last one. The habit of emphasizing the last syllable is now so engrained that the modern French often stress it even when they shouldn't.