Mora (unit)
The Mora or More (from Latin mora 'period') is
- in ancient verse a measure of quantity and
- in phonology a unit of measurement for the weight of the syllables (morality).
Both terms largely correspond to one another. The main difference is that in phonology the syllable weight (morality) measures a property of the syllable itself, in contrast to the ancient syllable quantity, which is a property of the syllable in the context of the verse.
Mores in ancient metrics
In the ancient quantitative metric of the Greeks, the Latin Mora corresponded to the time unit chronos protos ( χρόνος πρῶτος “first time”, “basic time”) or its multiple. In meter , the chronos protos or the mora corresponded to the verse element elementum breve , double the length of the elementum longum or the elementum anceps with a duration of 2 mores or chronos disēmos ( δίσημος “two signs”) etc. The time values are not absolute, but relative to the respective basic tempo. They thus resemble the musical duration of the note , whereby a mora is equated to the note value of a quarter note.
The following table shows the various Greek names for quantities with the respective symbols of the metric notation :
| Moren | Note value | character | Surname | Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ¼ | ◡ | χρόνος πρῶτος | chrónos prōtos |
| 2 | ½ | ── | χρόνος δίσημος | chrónos disēmos |
| 3 | ¾ | └──╴ | χρόνος τρίσημος | chrónos trísēmos |
| 4th | 1 | └───┘ | χρόνος τετράσημος | chrónos tetrásēmos |
| 5 | 1 ¼ | └─┴─┘ | χρόνος πεντάσημος | chrónos pentásēmos |
Andreas Heusler has adopted the symbols for the duration of individual syllables in his notation for the bar series of the German metric.
Mores in Phonology
Short syllables are single-core in languages in which the Moral term is relevant; long syllables, on the other hand, are two-core or, in some languages, even three-core. The definition of a long syllable varies depending on the language, a more often corresponds to an open syllable with a short vowel or a short vowel with at most one subsequent consonant . Syllables with a long vowel or a short vowel and several consonants are "two mored", so they count as two moras.
In ancient Greek the more is the carrier of the (musical) accent; in γλυκεῖᾰ 'sweet, fem. Nom. Sg.' the tweeter lies on the first more of the long syllable κεῖ [keː], while in γλυκείᾱς 'sweet, fem. Gen. Sg. ' the treble is on the second more of the same syllable.
Moren in Japanese
The Japanese language is known for its moronic qualities. Most dialects (including high-level language) use mores instead of syllables as the unit of their phonetic system. The famous haiku does not consist of three lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables, but of 5, 7 and 5 moras. A sign of the Hiragana and Katakana scriptures each represents a more, which are also the carriers of the high and low frequencies. The city names Tōkyō, Ōsaka and Sendai are all four-acres: と う き ょ う To-u-kyo-u, お お さ か Oo-sa-ka, せ ん だ い Se-n-da-i. A more generally consists of a vowel or a combination of a consonant and a vowel. In the Tōkyō example, the -y- stands for a palatalization of the preceding consonant. As an exception, the consonant -n- can form its own more without being followed by a vowel.
If one examines the Japanese vocabulary to see how often words occur that consist of a different number of Mores, one comes to the 1-shifted binomial distribution , which provides a good model for such a survey. See also the law of the distribution of word lengths .
literature
- Hadumod Bußmann (Ed.) With the collaboration of Hartmut Lauffer: Lexikon der Sprachwissenschaft. 4th, revised and bibliographically supplemented edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-520-45204-7 .
- Helmut Glück (Ed.): Metzler-Lexikon Sprache , 4th edition, Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart, 2010; ISBN 3-476-02335-4 , p. 661, sv More 1.
- T. Alan Hall: Phonology. An introduction. 2nd ed. De Gruyter, Berlin & New York 2011, ISBN 3-11-021588-8 , pp. 265-271.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christiaan Marie Jan Sicking: Greek verse teaching. (= Handbook of Classical Studies. Dept. 2, Part 4) Beck, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-406-35252-9 , p. 9.
- ↑ Haruko Sanada: Investigations in Japanese Historical Lexicology. Revised Edition. Peust & Gutschmidt, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-933043-12-2 , p. 96f.