Re: Re : Irritating word puzzle.

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