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Re: Re : Irritating word puzzle.

From:Patrick Dunn <tb0pwd1@...>
Date:Saturday, October 23, 1999, 19:43
On Sat, 23 Oct 1999, taliesin the storyteller wrote:

> * Patrick Dunn (tb0pwd1@corn.cso.niu.edu) [991023 21:07]: > /rhymes with "orange", and rhyme in general/ > > > > Just thought I'd share. Go on, ask me about meter, I dare ya! :) > > You -did- ask for it! Tell us about meter! ;)
hehehehe Okay, I will, then. There are two types of meter -- stress meter and quantitative meter. What we have in English is stress meter (the theories of Northrup Frye notwithstanding!): for example Hickory dickory dock, the mouse ran up the clock HICKory DICKory DOCK. the MOUSE ran UP the ClOCK Stressed syllables are given more emphasis -- they spoken slower or faster than unstressed syllables, they are spoken on a lower or higher tone than unstressed syllables, and they are spoken louder than unstressed syllables. In quantitative meter, the length of the vowels determines the metrical line, and stress is ignored. Ancient Greek uses this kind of meter. Here's an exmaple in English from Robert Bridge's "Nightengales": Beautiful must be the mountains wence ye come Bea-ti-ful must be the moun-tains wence ye come - U U - U U - U U - U You might use this in your conlang if you have a long-short syllable distinction and don't have strong accentual stress. Many romance languages use a different kind of meter: a syllabic meter, which is less concerned with metrical patterns than length of lines. Each lline, fo rinstance, might have eleven syllables, in any metrical pattern. This is hard as hell to pull off in English -- it tends to make it sound as if one tried for a metrical pattern and failed. In English, the accentual metrical pattern of most of our poetry until quite recently is the iambic pentameter line. This is a line of iambs ("feet" consisting of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllables) in five feet. So, for example: I sing a song to you about the moon. U / U / U / U / U / The natural meter of icelandic is a trochaic tetrameter line, Walking raindrenced, seeking homeward / U / U / U / U In English this tends to sound like an incantation instead of natural speech. Other meters in English include spondaic: See these brass tacks hold white sheets fast / / / / / / / / Anapestic: Who kept all his money in a bucket U / U U / U U U / U (all his mon- and in a buck- are anapestic -- this meter in English is comical, and therefore is often used in limericks) And dactylic: "Gone are the days when the dactyl was popular" / U U / U U / U U / U U More rare verisions that infrequently occur in English (but might be common in your language) include: ambribrach da DUM da amphimacer DUM da DUM tribrach da da da molussus DUM DUM DUM (I actually have a poem in which each stanza ends in a molussus "He cups his face with his _OLD COURSE HANDS_.") bacchius da DUM DUM antibacchius DUM DUM da *slaps chalkboard with pointer* Well, class. . . any questions? ;) --Pat