Diaeresis (prosody)
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In poetic meter, diaeresis ( ; also spelled diæresis or dieresis) has two meanings: the separate pronunciation of the two
vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...
s in a
diphthong A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, 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 ...
for the sake of
meter The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...
, and a division between feet 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 or actual duration of a vowel sound when pronounced. Vowels perceived as shorter are often called short vowels and those perceived as longer called long vowels. On one hand, many languages do not d ...
), 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 classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
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 (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...
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 (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient 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. Despite doubts about his autho ...
.


Example

*ἀλλά μοι ἀμφ᾿ Ὀδυσῆϊ δαΐφρονι δαίεται ῆτορ...
But my soul is torn about Odysseus the fiery-hearted... : – ''
Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...
'
1.48
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 is a form of meter used in Ancient Greek epic and didactic poetry as well as in epic, didactic, satirical, and pastoral Latin poetry. Its name is derived from Greek (, "finger") and (, "six"). Dactylic hexameter consists o ...
depends on the sequence of long and short (or heavy and light) syllables. It is composed of six feet, five of which are in two basic patterns: long–short–short ( dactyl) 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 Gree ...
). 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) 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, an adjective, another adverb, a determiner, a clause, a preposition, or a sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, or level of certainty by ...
ial use of the neuter
accusative In grammar, the accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to receive 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", " ...
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. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...
' (''e''-grade of
ablaut In linguistics, the Indo-European ablaut ( , from German ) is a system of apophony (regular vowel variations) in the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). An example of ablaut in English is the strong verb ''sing, sang, sung'' and its relate ...
), which is
cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...
with
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
''su-'' (zero-grade). In
Proto-Greek The Proto-Greek language (also known as Proto-Hellenic) is the Indo-European language which was the last common ancestor of all varieties of Greek, including Mycenaean Greek, the subsequent ancient Greek dialects (i.e., Attic, Ionic, Ae ...
, ''s'' between vowels became ''h'' (
debuccalization Debuccalization or deoralization is a sound change or alternation in which an oral consonant loses its original place of articulation and moves it to the glottis (, , or ). The pronunciation of a consonant as is sometimes called aspiration ...
), and later was lost.


See also

* Synaeresis *
Vowel breaking In historical linguistics, vowel breaking, vowel fracture, or diphthongization is the sound change of a monophthong into a diphthong or triphthong. Types Vowel breaking may be unconditioned or conditioned. It may be triggered by the presence of ...


References

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