歌词
Syllables
In Latin as in English
a word has as many syllables
as it has vowels or diphthongs
syllabification
Dividing a word into syllables
Two contiguous vowels or a vowel and a diphthong are separated
dea, de-a
deae, de-ae
A single consonant between two vowels goes with the second vowel
amīcus, a-mī-cus
When two or more consonants stand between two vowels
generally only the last consonant goes with the second vowel
mittō, mit-tō
servāre, ser-vā-re
cōnsūmptus, cōn-sūmp-tus
However, a stop (p, b, t, d, c, g)
plus a liquid (l,r)
generally count as a single consonant and go with the following vowel
patrem, pa-trem
castra, cas-tra
Also counted as single consonants are
qu and the aspirates ch, ph, th
which should never be separated in syllabification
architectus, ar-chi-tec-tus,
loquācem, lo-quā-cem
Syllable Quantity
A syllable is long by nature
if it contains a long vowel or a diphthong
a syllable is long by position
if it contains a short vowel followed by two or more consonants
or by x, which is a double consonant: ks.
Otherwise a syllable is short
again, the difference is rather like
that between a musical half note and a quarter note
Syllables long by nature (here underlined)
lau-dō, Rō-ma, a-mī-cus.
Syllables long by position (underlined)
ser-vat, sa-pi-en-ti-a, ax-is ( = ak-sis).
Examples with all long syllables underlined
whether long by nature or long by position
lau-dā-te, mo-ne-ō, sae-pe, cōn-ser-vā-tis, pu-el-lā-rum.
Even in English, syllables have this sort of temporal quantity
that is, some syllables take longer to pronounce than others
Consider the word "enough" with its very short, clipped first syllable
and the longer second syllable
but it is not a phenomenon we think much about
The matter is important in Latin,however
for at least two reasons
first, syllable quantity was a major determinant of the rhythm of Latin poetry
as you will learn later in your study of the language
and, of more immediate importance,
syllable quantity determined the position of a word's stress accent as explained below