Editing Syllable weight (section)

===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]].