Latin metric
The Latin metric or verse theory is based on the Greek metric and, like it, is based on the regulated sequence of short and long syllables , the basic unit of metric. So it is quantitative. This article only deals with the issues of measuring syllables in Latin . Everything else can be found in the articles Verslehre, Versfuß and in the articles on individual verses.
Long and short vowels
In Latin, the length of the vowel ( quantity ) is distinctive (as in German). This means that word pairs can occur whose members differ only in the quantity (long or short) of a vowel. In German these are, for example, the pairs pale / fall , steel / pose , them / inside , soot / Russians and dune / thin . Examples of Latin are: cecidi 'I fell' / cecīdi 'I fell' and os 'bone' / ōs 'mouth'. In contrast to German, which knows accented verses, in Latin (and Greek) the rhythm of verse is based on this distinction.
Vowel combinations
The diphthongs ae [ai], oe [oi], au and eu [eu] are always long (and therefore the syllable they contain). As in German, they only count for one syllable.
All other connections of vowels form two syllables. Example: te-ne-at (3 syllables), mo-nu-it (3 syllables), ma-ri-um (3 syllables), con-stan-ti-a (4 syllables).
An apparent exception is the string qu , for example in qua-li-tas 'property'. Here, however , the u does not denote an independent u-vowel, but a labiovelar half-vowel as can be found in English, e.g. B. in words like question or the w in general in English as opposed to German. Care must be taken that qualitas is not pronounced analogously to German, where the (Latin) foreign word quality is pronounced as Kwalität [ kvaliˈtɛːt ], but remains with a labialized velar: [ kʷaliˈtɛːt ]. If there is a morphemic boundary between two vowels , they also form two syllables when they should actually form a diphthong: me-us (2 syllables, the - e - belongs to the root of the word , the - u - to the ending ).
Vocalis ante vocalem corripitur
In a two-syllable direct succession of vowels with no consonant in between, the first vowel is short.
Examples:
- With puella the u is short because it comes before a vowel, the e . (The other vowels are also short here, unless puella is in the ablative; however, the second syllable el is long because the l of the following syllable creates la positional length and therefore the stress of the word is on it.)
- The corripitur ( is recorded , that is, gathered together ) can e.g. B. can be clearly illustrated by a long vocal conjugation. Although the long i , z. B. in audire (to hear) , which gives the name to the long vowel i conjugation, also has a long i in the imperative audi (hear!) , It is shortened in the present subjunctive: audias (may you hear) to a short i , since it stands in front of a vowel.
Exceptions
- In those cases where a vowel before a vowel is not short but long, e.g. B. the i in totius or unius (the emphasis of these words is then also on this i ), but it is often shortened in poetry. So z. B. Virgil in his work Aeneid the i at unius sometimes short and sometimes long.
- Foreign words from other languages, especially from Greek, are not subject to this specifically Latin rule. Example: Ŏdŭsīă (from Ὀδύσσεια ).
Long and short syllables
A syllable is long in Latin if
- their vowel is long (then one speaks of natural length ), or if
- there is more than one consonant between your vowel and the vowel of the next syllable ( position length ); a double consonant counts like two consonants.
A syllable is short if
- none of the above conditions apply.
The length of the last syllable of a word for which this rule is not written is irrelevant in ancient poetry.
Examples: The word ascendere has four syllables. In the typeface, where prefixes and word components are decisive, it is separated as follows: a-scen-de-re . You do not have to correctly separate the syllables (this is: as-cen-de-re ) in order to be able to determine the length of the syllables correctly using the above rule. The first syllable is long because between a (vowel of the first syllable) and e (vowel of the second syllable) there are two consonants (- sc -). The second syllable is long (- nd -) for the same reason . The third syllable is short: first, the - e - is a short - e -, and second, there is only one consonant between the vowel of the third syllable and the vowel of the last syllable: - r -. The last syllable is short because the vowel is short and no consonant follows. With regard to poetry, however, the last syllable of a word is irrelevant if it occurs at the mailing, where, according to the rule, it can be measured both short and long ( syllaba anceps ) .
In the word amare , the first syllable is short because the vowel is short and there is only one consonant to the vowel of the next syllable. The second syllable is long because the vowel is long.
There are the following exceptions to the rules mentioned:
1.) Aspiration: The letter - h - is not considered a consonant in the sense of the position rule, but as an aspiration sign. There are exceptions in late Latin .
2. Single letters as double consonants: - x - and - z - count as double consonants (ks or ts)
3.) Double letters as a single consonant: - qu - (pronounced kw) is generally regarded as a single consonant (exceptions in Lucretius and in late Latin ).
4.) Muta cum Liquida : The combination of a plosive (b, p; c, k, qu, g; d, t) and a Liquida (l, r; m; n), in the lowerings of the verses usually also the Connections sc, sq, st, sp, su (u here as a half-vowel as in suadere) as well as with Greek foreign words sm, x, z, ps, do not lead to the formation of a position length in the Latin metric . However, there are also exceptions to this exception rule. In addition to the exact consonant combination, the position of the muta cum liquida is also decisive. If the liquid is a - l - or a - r - (in the Greek metric also one of the other liquids, - m - or - n -), the affected syllable can be measured long or short as required.
Example: In
"Ĕt prīmō sĭmĭlĭs vŏlŭcrī, mŏx vēră vŏlŭcrĭs (Ovid Met XIII, 607) - and at first similar to a bird, soon a real bird "
even both appear in one verse: In the word vŏlŭcrī no position length is formed after the -u- ; it is pronounced like vŏ-lŭ-crī so that the syllable lŭ is short as it ends with a short vowel. With the word vŏlŭcrĭs, on the other hand, after tearing apart the muta cum liquida cr is formed by means of the verbal syllable separation vŏ-lŭc-rĭs position length . The syllable lŭc ends with a consonant and is closed with it, i.e. long. The verse mentioned is then metrics as follows:
| Separated verse: | ĕt | prī- | mō | sĭ- | mĭ- | lĭs | vŏ- | lŭ- | crī, | mŏx | vē- | ră | vŏ- | lŭc- | rĭs |
| Metrization: | - | - | - | υ | υ | - | υ | υ | - | - | - | υ | υ | - | x |
(After the syllable separation, you can see that a syllable is short exactly when it ends with a short vowel.)
With compound words, Muta cum liquida always forms position length if the two consonants belong to different syllables, because then the first of the two closes the syllable, e.g. B. in ob-lino, ab-rumpo the prefixes are lengthened.
A muta cum liquida across word boundaries does not make it possible to avoid the position length, because here too the syllable is closed by a consonant. So is z. B. in et rege ( Virgil , Aeneis I, 553) the syllable et always positionally. If, on the other hand, there is Muta cum liquida at the beginning of the following word after the vowel-final short syllable, there is usually no position length. However, certain combinations of consonants also lead to elongation here (gn mandatory, tr, fr, br occasionally).
Word boundaries are irrelevant
For the length or shortness of a syllable in a verse, the word boundaries are irrelevant in the metric . (A small exception here is the muta-cum-liquida rule, which is not applied across word boundaries.) A syllable is also long if the two consonants between its vowel and the vowel of the following syllable lie here and there on a word boundary. Example: In the verse: in nova fer t ani mus mu ta tas di cere for mas , the spoken syllables highlighted in bold are long because - regardless of the word boundary - two consonants lie between the vowel of one syllable and the vowel of the next. Since the sense of rhythm of the quantifying metric has been lost in today's languages, one likes to read the hexameter in such a way that one emphasizes the first (always long) syllable of each of its six meters: ín nova fért animús mutátas dícere fórmas
To understand long and short syllables
A siren sounds ta: -tü: -ta: -ta:, with the colon indicating the length of the vowel. Because these vowels are all long, it is clear that all syllables are long too. Let's let a clock tick: If we say tik-tak-tik-tak , it doesn't go that fast either. But if we say ti-ke-ta-ke-ti-ke-ta-ke , we create twice as many syllables and hardly need any longer. These syllables are short because they can be spoken more quickly, while the syllables tik and tak are long. In principle, a short syllable consists of a consonant and a short vowel with which it ends. Long syllables end with a long vowel or a consonant.
Long and short syllables after correct hyphenation across word boundaries
Only when the separation of the whole verse (not just its words!) According to spoken syllables has been made correctly (which you normally don't do at all, but has happened with the verse in the table above), you can also apply the following simple rule:
- A syllable is short when it ends with a short vowel;
- otherwise it is long.
The preceding syllable separation not only exceeds parts of words, but entire words: there is always exactly one consonant between the vowels (two only if they form a muta with a liquid l or r ; even then this is not always necessary) Syllable that opens a consonant with this. Any remaining consonants that still exist close the preceding syllable. Closing the syllable would cause its elongation.
So z. B. the fifth from last verse (verse 49) from Ovid's Daedalus and Icarus , which means: at pater infelix, nec iam pater, Icare, dixit, (But the unhappy father, no longer a father, said: Icarus!) The following syllable separation about the Word boundaries:
| Separated verse: | at | pă- | tĕ- | r īn- | fē- | līx, | nĕc | I am | pă- | tĕ- | r, Ῑ- | că- | re, | dīc- | sĭt, |
| Metrization: | - | υ | υ | - | - | - | - | - | υ | υ | - | υ | υ | - | - |
Even the comma or even a point does not prevent the syllable from extending over a word boundary. The r, Ῑ is pronounced almost like an ordinary syllable ri with a long i ; Strictly speaking, there should be a slight breath between r and i . The syllable separation carried out in this way shows that a syllable is short exactly when it ends with a short vowel.
"I" as a consonant in the initial syllable sound
In the initial sound of the syllable, i counts as a consonant ("j"). So iacere has 3 syllables, iunctum 2. This also applies to compound nouns in which the i of the simplex is no longer in the initial : coniungere therefore has 4, not 5 syllables. But if the syllable initial i is followed by a consonant, i either becomes like a vowel, e.g. B. with iter , or how the consonant-vowel combination ji spoken, z. B. spoken in conicere or ictus .
Stress rules
- Two-syllable words are always stressed on the first syllable.
- Words with three and more syllables are always stressed on the penultimate syllable (the paenultima) if it is long, and on the penultimate syllable (the ante paenultima) if the penultimate syllable is short.
- Ralf Schuricht summarizes the exceptions to these rules as follows: “Will (always!) Be a monosyllabic enclitic , i.e. a word without its own accent like -que , -ve or -ne to another (free, ie one with its own accent ) word appended, the stress shifts to the last syllable before the enclitic, even if this syllable is short: e.g. domináque , omniáque . Some words have retained their original intonation even after their final syllable has been sanded off. Thus , for example, illīc (from illīce ) or viden (from vidēsne ) are stressed on the final syllable . "
Examples:
- néfās , although the first syllable is short, the second is naturally long because of the long -a- ; every two-syllable word is stressed on the first syllable;
- volúbĭlis , since the penultimate syllable is short; the short vowel -i- is followed only by the one consonant -l- ;
- oratóre , since the penultimate syllable is long; Because of the long -o- it is naturally long : oratōre ;
- cupiénda , since the penultimate syllable is long and positionally long; the short -e- is followed by two consonants: nd ;
- célĕbro , since br is a muta-cum-liquida connection with -l- or -r- as liquida and such connections are always treated as a single consonant in prosody , which is why the penultimate syllable lĕ does not form a position length and because of the short - e- is also not naturally long;
- regéque ( rege is the imperative of regere if the first -e- is short and the ablative of rex if the first -e- is long); However, regéque is emphasized on the second syllable with a short -e- , since a -que attached in the sense of et always puts the stress on the penultimate syllable, i.e. the syllable before que , even if this, as is the case here, is short.
- vidén ; it is one of those words in which the tone has not shifted after sanding (from vidésne ).
These word stresses are actually retained in poetry. But since modern languages have lost the sense of rhythm for short and long syllables, this is often done by stressing when reading quantitating poetry, whose metrics do not distinguish between stressed and unstressed but, as was common in ancient times, between long and short syllables Replaced certain long syllables in verse ; in this way you can feel the quantitating rhythm in the accustomed accentuating rhythm. In doing so, one ignores the natural emphasis.
Rules of Elision
The rules of elision refer to the omission of vowel endings or endings -am , -em , -im , -om and -um in pronunciation.
Elision rule 1
If two vowels meet over a word boundary (i.e. the first word ends with a vowel, while the second begins with a vowel), the final vowel is swallowed up (elidated) and does not apply to the metric count: primaqu (e) ab origine mundi therefore contains only 9 syllables.
Elision rule 2
If a word ends in -am , -em , -im , -om , -um , while the next word starts with a vowel, -am , -em , -im , -om , -um is elidated. This has to do with the pronunciation of Latin ; Sequences from the vowel and m were spoken nasally, the m has a tendency to be elidated. Example ( Virgil , Aeneis I, 88–89):
Eripiunt subito nubes caelumque diemque
Teucrorum ex oculis; ponto nox incubat atra.
read: teúcror 'éx oculís
("Suddenly clouds take day and sky away from the view of the Teukrer; a black night lies on the sea.")
A Latin word can also end with -om (instead of -um ). Example:
In divom incedo in Aeneis I, 46 the ending -om is elided .
Elision rule 3
h is silent and does not count as a consonant. That is why the same elision phenomena occur with initial h - as with vowel-like words. Example ( Aeneis I, 97-101): “… Mene Iliacis occumbere campis
non potuisse, tuaque animam hanc effundere dextra,
saevus ubi Aeacidae telo iacet Hector, ubi ingens
Sarpedon, ubi dead Simois correpta sub undis
scuta virum galeasque et fortia corpora volvit? "
read: nón potuísse tuáqu 'anim' ánc effúndere déxtra
(“… Could I not fall on the battlefields of Ilion, pour my soul through your right hand, where the wild Hector, killed by the Aacid's missile, lies, and the immense Sarpedon, and the Simois the torn shields and helmets and the brave Body of so many men rolling under the waves? ")
Elision rule 4 (aphaeresis)
The e - of est and it is eluted if the preceding word ends with a vowel or - am , - em , - im - um . This is known as apheresis and reverses the otherwise applicable rules of elision: it is not the last vowel of the first but the first of the second that is left out.
laudandum est is pronounced like laudandumst , laudata est like laudatast and thus only counts three instead of four syllables. Example ( Aeneis , I, 385-386).
… Nec plura querentem
passa Venus medio sic interfata dolore est
Read: pás | sa | Ve | nús | me | di | ó | sic | ín | ter | fá | ta | do | ló | rest . (long syllables thick) ... (... Venus did not let him complain further and interrupted him in the middle of his painful speech as follows: ...)
Elision rule 5 (waiver of elision)
An elision must be avoided if this results in the vowel of an exclamation such as B. "o", "uae" or "heu" would be elided. Exclamations always keep their vowels.
Graphical representation
Various options for creating a metric analysis graphically online and printing it out in a text program can be found on the website Roman Metrics - Introduction to the Basics .
literature
- Sandro Boldrini: Prosody and Metrics of the Romans . Teubner, Stuttgart 1999
- Wilhelm Christ : Metric of the Greeks and Romans . Teubner, Leipzig 1874
- Friedrich Crusius : Roman metric. An introduction. Newly edited by Hans Rubenbauer . 8th edition Munich 1967, reprint: Georg Olms, Hildesheim 2008, ISBN 978-3-487-07532-7
- Hans Drexler : Introduction to the Roman Metric . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1974, ISBN 3-534-04494-0
- Wolfgang Joseph Emmerig: Instructions for Latin verse art. Fourth much improved edition. JM Daisenberger, Regensburg 1825
- Johann Bartholomäus Goßmann: WJ Emmerig's instructions for Latin verse art. Revised and enriched with a German and Greek verse theory, along with a selection of poems by classical authors . Stein, Nuremberg 1844
- Paul Klopsch: Introduction to the Middle Latin verse theory . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1972, ISBN 3-534-05339-7
- Landgraf-Leitschuh: Latin school grammar. CC Buchner, Bamberg 1931
- Christian Lehmann: La structure de la syllabe latine. In: Christian Touratier (ed.): Essais de phonologie latine. Actes de l'atelier d'Aix-en-Provence 12-13 avril 2002 (avec le soutiens financier du CNRS) . Publications de l'Universite de Provence (Langues et langage, 11), Aix-en-Provence 2005, pp. 157–206, online (PDF; 273 kB)
- Burkhard Moennighoff: Metrics . Reclam, Stuttgart 2004 (RUB 17649), ISBN 3-15-017649-2
- Dag Ludvig Norberg: Introduction à l'étude de la versification latine médiévale . Almqvist & Wiksell, Stockholm 1958
- Richard Volkmann u. a .: Rhetoric and metrics of the Greeks and Romans ( Handbook of Ancient Science Vol. 2, 2). Beck, Munich 3rd revised edition. 1901
- Christian Zgoll: Roman prosody and metrics. A study book with audio files. Darmstadt 2012, ISBN 978-3-534-23688-6
