Editing Syllable weight (section)

==Classical poetry==<!---[[Iambic pentameter]] links to this subsection--->

===Basic definition===
In [[Ancient Greek literature|Ancient Greek]] [[hexameter poetry]] and [[Latin literature]], lines followed certain [[meter (poetry)|metrical]] patterns, such as based on arrangements of heavy and light syllables. A heavy syllable was referred to as a '''{{lang|la|longum}}''' and a light as a '''{{lang|la|brevis}}''' (and in the modern day, reflecting the ancient terms, a {{lang|la|longum}} is often called a "long syllable" and a {{lang|la|brevis}} a "short syllable", potentially creating confusion between syllable length and [[vowel length]]).

Similarly, in [[Sanskrit prosody|Classical Sanskrit meter]], metrical patterns consisted of arrangements of syllable weight groups, called gaṇas (parallel to [[Foot (prosody)|Greek metrical feet]]). A heavy syllable was named '''''guru''''', and a light syllable was '''''laghu'''''.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Vaidya|first=Lakshman|title=Sanskrit-English Dictionary|publisher=Sagoon Press|pages=843–856}}</ref>

A syllable was considered heavy if it contained a [[long vowel]] or a [[diphthong]] (and was therefore "long by nature"—it would be long no matter what) or if it contained a short vowel that was followed by more than one consonant ("long by position", long by virtue of its relationship to the consonants following). On the other hand, a syllable was light if it was an [[Syllable#Open and closed|open syllable]] and contained only a short vowel.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Smith|first=John D.|date=April 1978|title=Sanskrit: An introduction to the classical language. By Michael Coulson. (Teach Yourself Books.) pp. xxx, 493. London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1976. £2.95.|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0035869x00134665|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland|volume=110|issue=2|pages=177–178|doi=10.1017/s0035869x00134665|s2cid=162628684 |issn=0035-869X|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

{{Wikisource|1=Aeneid (Williams)/Book I|2=Aeneid (Book 1)}}
An example in Latin:
:{{lang|la|Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris}}
:{{lang|la|Italiam fato profugus Laviniaque venit}}
: (''[[Aeneid]]'' 1.1-2)

The first syllable of the first word (''{{lang|la|arma}}'') is heavy ("long by position") because it contains a short vowel (the A) followed by more than one consonant (R and then M)—and if not for the consonants coming after it, it would be light. The second syllable is light because it contains a short vowel (an A) followed immediately by only one consonant (the V). The next syllable is light for the same reason. The next syllable, the second syllable of the word ''{{lang|la|virumque}}'', is heavy ("long by position") because it contains a short vowel followed by more than one consonant (the M and then the Q).

But, for example, the first syllable of the word ''{{lang|la|Troiae}}'' is heavy ("long by nature") because it contains a diphthong, regardless of the sounds coming after it. Likewise, the fifth syllable of the second line (the first of the word ''{{lang|la|fato}}'') is heavy ("long by nature") because it contains a long vowel, and it will be heavy no matter what sounds come after. (The word "Italiam" is a special case, in that poets ''treat'' it as having a long-by-nature first syllable which it actually has not, in order to make it fit somehow.)

Terming a syllable "long by position" is equivalent to noting that the syllable ends with a consonant (a closed syllable), because Latin and Greek speakers in the classical era pronounced a consonant as part of a preceding syllable only when it was followed by other consonants, due to the rules of Greek and Latin [[syllabification]]. In a consonant cluster, one consonant ends the preceding syllable and the rest start the following syllable. For example, Latin syllabifies ''{{lang|la|volat}}'' as ''{{lang|la|vo-lat}}'' but ''{{lang|la|dignus}}'' as ''{{lang|la|dig-nus}}'' and ''{{lang|la|monstrum}}'' as ''{{lang|la|mon-strum}}''.

===Exceptions and additions===
A few exceptions to and elaborations of the above rules of heavy and light syllables:
* The Greek letters {{lang|grc|ζ, ξ, ψ}} ([[zeta (letter)|zeta]], [[Xi (letter)|xi]], and [[psi (letter)|psi]]) and their Roman equivalents {{lang|la|Z}} and {{lang|la|X}} (and {{lang|la|PS}}) were pronounced as two consonants, so they lengthen by position despite being represented by a single character.<ref>{{cite book|page=35 |title=Greek Grammar |first=Herbert Weir |last=Smyth |authorlink= Herbert Weir Smyth |others=Revised by Gordon M. Messing |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |year=1920 |isbn=0-674-36250-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |page=[https://archive.org/details/allengreenoughsn00alle/page/6 6] |title=New Latin Grammar |url=https://archive.org/details/allengreenoughsn00alle/page/6 |url-access=registration |editor1-first=J.&nbsp;B. |editor1-last=Greenough |editor1-link=James Bradstreet Greenough |editor2-first=G.&nbsp;L. |editor2-last=Kittredge |editor2-link=George Lyman Kittredge |editor3-first=A.&nbsp;A. |editor3-last=Howard |editor4-first=Benj.&nbsp;L. |display-editors=3 |editor4-last=D'Ooge |publisher=Ginn and Company |year=1903 |isbn=0-89241-001-9 }}</ref> For example, the first syllable of ''{{lang|la|gaza}}'' is heavy, despite the short vowel followed only by one written consonant, because the Z was pronounced as two consonants and lengthens the syllable by position.
*Sanskrit meter also treats the letters अं and अः (the [[anusvara]] and [[visarga]]) as full consonants for purposes of syllable weight, despite being classified typically as vowels.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal|date=January 1893|title=IV. Notices of Books - Sanskrit-English Dictionary. By Arthur A. Macdonell, Deputy-Professor of Sanskrit in the University of Oxford. (London: Longmans, sq. 4to. pp. 384.)|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0035869x00022280|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland|volume=25|issue=1|pages=178|doi=10.1017/s0035869x00022280|s2cid=250352541 |issn=0035-869X|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
* The combination [[stop consonant|stop]]–[[liquid consonant|liquid]] (usually) or stop–[[nasal consonant|nasal]] (sometimes) cohered in both Latin and Greek; that is, the two consonants were pronounced together with the speed of one consonant. As a result, they did not lengthen by position if the poet did not want them to (although they could if the poet chose). For example, the first syllable of ''{{lang|la|patris}}'' is generally light, even though it has a short vowel followed by two consonants, because the consonants cohere (and the word is syllabified ''{{lang|la|pa-tris}}''). However, the combination [[aspiration (phonetics)|aspirate]]-nasal or [[voice (phonetics)|voiced consonant]]-nasal did not cohere and always lengthened by position.
* In [[Homer]] and his imitators, the [[digamma]] ({{lang|grc|ϝ}}), a sound defunct in the standard [[History of the Greek alphabet|Ionic alphabet]] and lost from pronunciation by the classical period, was still felt enough to lengthen by position, even though it is normally not written in the Homeric poems. For example, in the line {{lang|grc|ἦ τοι μὲν τόδε καλὸν ἀκουέμεν ἐστὶν ἀοιδοῦ}} (''[[Odyssey]]'', 9.3), the first syllable of {{lang|grc|καλὸν}} is long, even though it has a short vowel followed by only one consonant, because the word was originally {{lang|grc|καλϝὸν}}, and the digamma was still felt enough to lengthen the syllable by position. Since the digamma was being lost during the time when the Homeric poems were composed, recited, and written down, its effects are sometimes not felt, so that words that would have contained a digamma sometimes do not show its effects.

As noted above, the number and order of heavy and light syllables in a line of poetry (together with [[caesura|word breaks]]) articulated the [[meter (poetry)|meter]] of the line, such as the most famous classical meter, the epic [[dactylic hexameter]].