Diaeresis (prosody)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

In poetic meter, diaeresis ( or , also spelled diæresis or dieresis) has two meanings: the separate pronunciation of the two
vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
s in a
diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
for the sake of meter, and a division between
feet The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made ...
that corresponds to the division between words. Synaeresis, the pronunciation of two vowels as a diphthong (or as a
long vowel In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, f ...
), is the opposite of the first definition.


Etymology

Diaeresis comes from the
Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
noun ''diaíresis'' (διαίρεσις) "taking apart" or "division" (also "distinction"), from the verb ''diairéō'' (διαιρέω) "take apart", a compound of the verb ''airéō'' (αἱρέω) "take" and the preposition ''diá'' (διά) "through" (in compounds, "apart").


French

In the
phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
of Standard French, the letters ''ie'' are normally pronounced or except after ''Cr'' or ''Cl'', when they indicate two syllables, or . (That exception came into the language only around the 17th century, as can be seen in poems before then.) In some French dialects, however, diaeresis is the norm, with the two-syllable pronunciation found after any consonant. In Standard French, the pronunciation of ''hier'' (yesterday) varies between the two, or , depending on the context.


Greek

Diaeresis as separate pronunciation of vowels in a diphthong was first named where it occurred in the poetry of
Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
.


Example

*ἀλλά μοι ἀμφ᾿ Ὀδυσῆϊ δαΐφρονι δαίεται ῆτορ...
But my soul is torn about Odysseus the fiery-hearted... *: In this example, diaereses are in bold. The vowels in each diaeresis are placed in separate syllables when the line is scanned: *ΑΛ λα μοι , ΑΜ φο δυ , ΣΗ ι δα , ΙΦ ρο νι , ΔΑΙ ε ται , Η ΤΟΡ
Dactylic hexameter Dactylic hexameter (also known as heroic hexameter and the meter of epic) is a form of meter or rhythmic scheme frequently used in Ancient Greek and Latin poetry. The scheme of the hexameter is usually as follows (writing – for a long syllable, ...
depends on the sequence of long and short (or heavy and light) syllables. It is composed of six
feet The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made ...
, five of which are in two basic patterns: long–short–short (
dactyl Dactyl may refer to: * Dactyl (mythology), a legendary being * Dactyl (poetry), a metrical unit of verse * Dactyl Foundation, an arts organization * Finger, a part of the hand * Dactylus, part of a decapod crustacean * "-dactyl", a suffix used ...
) or long–long (
spondee A spondee (Latin: ) is a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables, as determined by syllable weight in classical meters, or two stressed syllables in modern meters. The word comes from the Greek , , 'libation'. Spondees in Ancient Greek ...
). In the scansion of the line above, long syllables are uppercase, short syllables are lowercase, and feet are divided by a vertical line. All feet in the line conform to one of the two patterns of dactylic hexameter. If the pairs of vowels are contracted into diphthongs by synaeresis (i.e., Ὀδυσῇ δαίφρονι) and the diphthongs are placed in one syllable each, one foot (in ) no longer follows the patterns, no matter how the line is scanned: *ΑΛ λα μοι , ΑΜ φο δυ , , ΔΑΙΦ ρο νι , ΔΑΙ ε ται , Η ΤΟΡ *ΑΛ λα μοι , ΑΜ φο δυ , ΣΗΙ ΔΑΙΦ , , ΔΑΙ ε ται , Η ΤΟΡ


Εὖ

In Homer, compounds beginning with ἐύ- (also spelled ἐΰ-, with a diaeresis or
trema Trema may refer to: * a List of Greek and Latin roots in English/P–Z#T, Greek and Latin root meaning ''hole'' * ''Tréma'', a word in French meaning diaeresis ** more generally, two dots (diacritic) * Trema (plant), ''Trema'' (plant), a genus of ...
) frequently contain two separate vowels (diaeresis). In later Greek, the two vowels form a diphthong (synaeresis). The word comes from εὖ "well", the
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...
ial use of the neuter
accusative The accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘the ...
singular of the adjective ἐύς "good". The form with diaeresis is the original form, since the word comes from
Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...
' (''e''-grade of ablaut), which is
cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
with
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
''su-'' (zero-grade). In Proto-Greek, ''s'' between vowels became ''h'' ( debuccalization), and later was lost.


See also

* Synaeresis * Vowel breaking


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Diaeresis (Prosody) Poetic devices Vowels Poetic rhythm sv:Trema#Avskiljande funktion: dieresis