On the shore of comparative metrics- Numerical Prosody


‎ Meter is used as a measure both in many physical aspects starting with distance or ‎length extending to electricity, sound, water flow, heat etc. though the units may differ ‎between a system and another, the word has the same implication to all people in all ‎feilds. It implies the existence of a quantity composed of units.‎



This applies in the field of poetry or rather poetries of the word, regardless of the ‎variation of the measurement unit.‎



I am aware of three types of prosodies : quantitative , accentual and syllabic ‎

Many unit pairs are being used in scansion in various languages as well as in the same ‎languges. These units have different names.‎

Here are some examples in Western, Arabic and other prosodies

‎ For the pair of (Small, long, unaccentual, unstressed) and( Big, long,strong, ‎accentual, ‎stressed‎)‎

Following languages’ symbols are ‎

Arabic 1: ( o - ) , (- o) , (o / ) (u /) (1 2) ‎

Urdu : ( s L) , ( - = ) , (~ - ) ‎

Persian : ( u - ) ‎

Turkish : ( . - )‎

Western : ( da DUM ) , (x / ) , ( u s ) ‎

Pàëi 2 ‎ : ( 1 2 ) ‎

Indian 3 -Sanskrit : ( 1 2 )‎



Unifying symbols by using 1 and 2 only would be a step to familiarize the poetry meter ‎of a certain language to those who even do not speak that language and will facilitate ‎the study of comperative prosody.‎

We should carry in mind in this regards that the same ( numerical) meter in two ‎languages has one of two indications:‎

‎1-‎ Resemblance when the two prosodies are of the same type

‎. Arabic ,Latin and Hindu prosodies are quantitative.‎

Khabab in Arabic and French are syllabic

‎2-‎ Analogy ‎ when two prosodies belong to two types. English is a stress based ‎language, old Roman and Greek prosodies are quantitative. ‎



Here are some examples of comparison:‎

‎1-‎ Between Arabic and western prosodies

‎ A line of trochaic heptameter consists of seven trochees in a row:

‎

DUM da / DUM da / DUM da / DUM da / DUM da / DUM da / DUM da

‎2 .......1..... 2.......1..... 2... 1..... 2.... 1..... 2 .....1 ........2 ....1 .....2 ....1 ‎



‎

A line of trochaic hexameter consists of six trochees in a row:

‎

DUM da / DUM da / DUM da / DUM da / DUM da / DUM da ‎

‎2 ......1...... 2.... 1..... 2..... 1..... 2 ...1 ......2 ...1........ 2 ......1 ‎

:Abul’ataheyah says

ليس كلّ من أراد حاجةً...... ثمّ جدّ في طلابها قضاها

LAY...sa...KOL...lo...MAN...‘a...RA...da...HA...ja ...Tan

‎2.........1......2......1....2..........1.....2.. ...1...... 2....1.....2.....1‎



TOM…ma…JAD...da…FE….ti…..LA…bi….HA….qa…DA.…HA‎

‎2...........1......2.......1......2....1........2 .....1.... ..2......1.......2....... 2‎



To be continued in Arabic and English on


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figures in italics are the symbols used in Numerical Arabic prosody which is very limited as used in : العروض رقمـيّـاً

‎1 = short; ………….……1

‎2 = long; ………………..2

‎3 = short or long; ……………………..............[2] a

‎6 = one long or two shorts; ……………………….2

.....[2]...................‎5 = one short or one long or two shorts

rty = one short, one long & one short or two longs; 121 =31 or 2 2



‎31e = two shorts & one long or one long & two shorts.= 11 2 or 2 11 ……. (2)2 or (2)2 ….. ((4) ‎or (4))‎






English is a stress-timed language, French is syllable-timed. Poets in both ‎languages made efforts to import the quantitative metres from classical Greek ‎and Latin. In French these attempts failed in a very short time, and became ‎mere historical curiosities. French poetry remained with the syllabic versification ‎system, which is congenial to a syllable-timed language. English Renaissance ‎poets thought they succeeded in the adaptation of the quantitative metre. But ‎they were doing something that was very different from what they thought they ‎were doing: working in a stress timed language, they based their metre on the ‎more or less regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables, and not as ‎they thought, on the regular alternation of longer and shorter syllables. They ‎used the same names and graphic notation for the various metres, but the ‎system was utterly different, and well- suited to the nature of a stress-timed ‎language
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