Post by Bitmap on Mar 12, 2023 4:13:48 GMT
I have noticed that there often is some confusion regarding the question as to when a short vowel can be lengthened in poetry, even among people with advanced knowledge of Latin.
The basic rule I once learnt was that a vowel is lengthened when it is followed by more than one consonant with an exception for muta cum liquida, but that rule is, if not wrong, then at least inaccurate.
It would be more accurate to say that a short vowel becomes long by position when it is part of a closed syllable. In most cases, that comes down to the same thing, but it is an important distinction in order to understand how the logic behind muta cum liquida works and to tackle some more difficult questions I'll discuss further down. The a in classis is not short because there are 2 s behind the a, but because the word is, in terms of syllables, divided into clas-sis, leaving the a in a closed position.
It is a different ballgame with muta cum liquida, i.e. with plosives or fricatives followed by a liquid like l or r ... they roll off the tongue so easily that they are usually not split up in speech and can leave the preceding vowel short. In other words, words like tenebrae or volucres are actually divided as te-ne-brae and vo-lu-cres and are stressed on the first syllable in regular speech. However, poetic conventions allow for those consonants to be split up, dividing the words te-neb-rae and vo-luc-res, thus lengthening the e and the u respectively.
This gives you a lot of freedom when writing Latin verse, but it is often misconstrued. What some people I have seen seem to misunderstand is that such muta cum liquida constellations need to be in the middle of a word. Muta cum liquida at the beginning of a word can never lengthen a final short vowel of a preceding word. In, say, cuncta fluunt, there is no way of the a ever becoming short.
There are some cases that may seem like exceptions, like Verg. Aen. 9,765-67.
addit Halyn comitem et confixa Phegea parma,
ignaros deinde in muris Martemque cientis
Alcandrumque Haliumque Noemonaque Prytanimque.
The -que before Prytanimque is long here, but that's not because of the two vowels following, but because of some imitation of Greek catalogues where the -τε becomes long. Romans imitated that practice with their -que.
cf. Aen. 12, 362-64.
huic comitem Asbyten coniecta cuspide mittit
Chloreaque Sybarimque Daretaque Thersilochumque
et sternacis equi lapsum cervice Thymoeten.
cf. from Hesiod's Theogony (as brought to my attention by callaina )
Φᾶσίν τε Ῥῆσόν τ᾽ Ἀχελώιόν τ᾽ ἀργυροδίνην
Νέσσον τε Ῥοδίον θ᾽ Ἁλιάκμονά θ᾽ Ἑπτάπορόν τε
Γρήνικόν τε καὶ Αἴσηπον θεῖόν τε Σιμοῦντα
Πηνειόν τε καὶ Ἕρμον ἐυρρείτην τε Κάικον
Σαγγάριόν τε μέγαν Λάδωνά τε Παρθένιόν τε
Εὔηνόν τε καὶ Ἄρδησκον θεῖόν τε Σκάμανδρον.
An interesting question is what happens when you have a consonant cluster like sp, st, sc or sm at the beginning of a word (or possibly others, like gn). Those combinations don't roll of the tongue as easily as muta cum liquida. Yet, at the same time, they are part of the same syllable and don't easily lend their consonants to the final vowel of a preceding word. Do they lengthen a vowel or do they not? LCF, not better known as Deleted Member 13757, once posted a screenshot on that issue on LatinC from what I assume is academic literature.
"Although a short vowel is generally not lengthened before a word beginning with two consonants, there are exceptions. Short open vowels are generally not placed before words beginning with sc, sm, sp or st, but when they do occur before these consonant combinations, lengthening is subject to the following rules: If the vowel falls in the first half of the foot (and therefore before a caesura, even if not a main caesura), it is often lengthened, e.g. nulla fugae ratio, nulla spes: omnia muta (Cat. 64,186). When the vowel falls in the second half of the foot, it is generally short, e.g., ponite, spes sibi quisque, sed haec quam angusta videtis (Verg. Aen. 11,309)."
Another remarkable example of that came from Horace. Here, too, the short vowels came at the end of the foot:
Hor. serm. 1,53,4-36
Fundos Aufidio Lusco praetore libenter
linquimus, insani ridentes praemia scribae,
praetextam et latum clavum prunaeque vatillum.
I don't know if the observation above really holds water, as such constructions are very rare to begin with and there are probably very few examples, especially of lengthening. You usually avoid short vowels before such clusters to begin with. However, if they do appear in initial position after a short vowel, I would say they follow *similar* tendencies as muta cum liquida, but with the extra option of making it long if need be.
The basic rule I once learnt was that a vowel is lengthened when it is followed by more than one consonant with an exception for muta cum liquida, but that rule is, if not wrong, then at least inaccurate.
It would be more accurate to say that a short vowel becomes long by position when it is part of a closed syllable. In most cases, that comes down to the same thing, but it is an important distinction in order to understand how the logic behind muta cum liquida works and to tackle some more difficult questions I'll discuss further down. The a in classis is not short because there are 2 s behind the a, but because the word is, in terms of syllables, divided into clas-sis, leaving the a in a closed position.
It is a different ballgame with muta cum liquida, i.e. with plosives or fricatives followed by a liquid like l or r ... they roll off the tongue so easily that they are usually not split up in speech and can leave the preceding vowel short. In other words, words like tenebrae or volucres are actually divided as te-ne-brae and vo-lu-cres and are stressed on the first syllable in regular speech. However, poetic conventions allow for those consonants to be split up, dividing the words te-neb-rae and vo-luc-res, thus lengthening the e and the u respectively.
This gives you a lot of freedom when writing Latin verse, but it is often misconstrued. What some people I have seen seem to misunderstand is that such muta cum liquida constellations need to be in the middle of a word. Muta cum liquida at the beginning of a word can never lengthen a final short vowel of a preceding word. In, say, cuncta fluunt, there is no way of the a ever becoming short.
There are some cases that may seem like exceptions, like Verg. Aen. 9,765-67.
addit Halyn comitem et confixa Phegea parma,
ignaros deinde in muris Martemque cientis
Alcandrumque Haliumque Noemonaque Prytanimque.
The -que before Prytanimque is long here, but that's not because of the two vowels following, but because of some imitation of Greek catalogues where the -τε becomes long. Romans imitated that practice with their -que.
cf. Aen. 12, 362-64.
huic comitem Asbyten coniecta cuspide mittit
Chloreaque Sybarimque Daretaque Thersilochumque
et sternacis equi lapsum cervice Thymoeten.
cf. from Hesiod's Theogony (as brought to my attention by callaina )
Φᾶσίν τε Ῥῆσόν τ᾽ Ἀχελώιόν τ᾽ ἀργυροδίνην
Νέσσον τε Ῥοδίον θ᾽ Ἁλιάκμονά θ᾽ Ἑπτάπορόν τε
Γρήνικόν τε καὶ Αἴσηπον θεῖόν τε Σιμοῦντα
Πηνειόν τε καὶ Ἕρμον ἐυρρείτην τε Κάικον
Σαγγάριόν τε μέγαν Λάδωνά τε Παρθένιόν τε
Εὔηνόν τε καὶ Ἄρδησκον θεῖόν τε Σκάμανδρον.
An interesting question is what happens when you have a consonant cluster like sp, st, sc or sm at the beginning of a word (or possibly others, like gn). Those combinations don't roll of the tongue as easily as muta cum liquida. Yet, at the same time, they are part of the same syllable and don't easily lend their consonants to the final vowel of a preceding word. Do they lengthen a vowel or do they not? LCF, not better known as Deleted Member 13757, once posted a screenshot on that issue on LatinC from what I assume is academic literature.
"Although a short vowel is generally not lengthened before a word beginning with two consonants, there are exceptions. Short open vowels are generally not placed before words beginning with sc, sm, sp or st, but when they do occur before these consonant combinations, lengthening is subject to the following rules: If the vowel falls in the first half of the foot (and therefore before a caesura, even if not a main caesura), it is often lengthened, e.g. nulla fugae ratio, nulla spes: omnia muta (Cat. 64,186). When the vowel falls in the second half of the foot, it is generally short, e.g., ponite, spes sibi quisque, sed haec quam angusta videtis (Verg. Aen. 11,309)."
Another remarkable example of that came from Horace. Here, too, the short vowels came at the end of the foot:
Hor. serm. 1,53,4-36
Fundos Aufidio Lusco praetore libenter
linquimus, insani ridentes praemia scribae,
praetextam et latum clavum prunaeque vatillum.
I don't know if the observation above really holds water, as such constructions are very rare to begin with and there are probably very few examples, especially of lengthening. You usually avoid short vowels before such clusters to begin with. However, if they do appear in initial position after a short vowel, I would say they follow *similar* tendencies as muta cum liquida, but with the extra option of making it long if need be.