it can be either long or short, but for practical purposes the lines can all be read as if the last syllable is long) thus each line can be expected to end ― ⌣ ⌣ / ― ―. ![]() ![]() The basic scheme is as follows:ġ2 In the hexameter line the fifth and sixth feet are almost always a dactyl and a spondee (the last syllable of each line is technically anceps, i.e. five dactyls or spondees (with one of the spondees divided into two). six dactyls (― ⌣ ⌣ ) or spondees (― ―), followed by a line of dactylic pentameter, i.e. This meter consists of a line of dactylic hexameter, the meter of epic poetry, i.e. The elegiac coupletġ1 The Amores are all written in elegiac couplets. 1.8.65)ġ0 A failure to elide (hiatus) is rare. This occurs even if the elided vowel would have been long. Elisionĩ A further complication in reading aloud is the fact that a vowel or a vowel + m at the end of a word is usually suppressed (“elided”) when the next word begins with a vowel, or h + a vowel. More generally, a short syllable can be long by position when followed by any two (or more) consonants together (except h), or by x and z, which were each the equivalent of two consonants.ħ But before the following combinations of consonants the preceding short syllable can remain short:Ĩ However, a syllable cannot remain short when the two consonants following it belong to different parts of a compound abrumpo ), or to different words ( et refer ). The most obvious instances are when vowels are followed by double consonants ( ll, mm, nn, pp, ss etc.), and such words are also the easiest for a reader to speak correctly in Latin there was a clear difference between the L-sounds in malus and bellum, and it is easy to make this distinction aloud once alerted to it (MAL-us vs. In such cases it is almost impossible to scan the line without also establishing its sense.ĥ On the other hand the endings of Latin words provide us with a large collection of easily learned quantities: with a review of the basic declensions and conjugations it is not difficult to learn that the o of amō is long, and that the i of trādit is short, or that the ō and īs of puerō and puerīs are long.Ħ Other syllables with easily identifiable quantities are those which, though short by nature, become long by position because of the consonants that follow them. Much more common are the words whose form is identified only by their quantity: puella can be nominative singular or ablative singular, cīvis can be nominative or genitive singular or accusative plural, and manus can be nominative singular or nominative or accusative plural, etc. ![]() Latin has a number of virtual homonyms, distinguished only by their quantity, such as lĕvis (“light”) and lēvis (“smooth”). Ideally we would all know, say, that the first syllable of miles was long and the second one short, but in practice we are often uncertain, or even wrong, and it sometimes necessary to consult a dictionary solely to ascertain the quantities of a word.Ĥ An additional problem is that it is often necessary to know the meaning of a Latin word before one can know its prosody. All diphthongs are normally long by nature, but individual vowels can be either long or short, though a vowel followed by another vowel not in a diphthong is normally short. ProsodyĢ Whereas English meters are based on a word’s accent (“Múch have I trávelled in the reálms of góld”), Latin meters are based on quantity what matters most is whether syllables are long or short.ģ For most of us the obstacle to reading Latin verse aloud is that we have not learned the quantities of Latin very well. For fuller discussion see D. S. Raven, Latin Metre : an Introduction (London: Faber and Faber, 1965). 1 Since the Amores may well be among the first Latin poems a student encounters, it may be helpful to provide a brief introduction to the rules of Latin prosody (the quantity of individual syllables) and to the reading aloud of elegiac couplets.
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