The Quantity of Syllables in Ancient Greek
The Quantity of Syllables in Ancient Greek The Quantity of Syllables in Ancient Greek: Figure 1: Ancient Greek is an extremely musical language, possessing both pitch, and rhythm. Introduction: In Ancient Greek, syllables are either: long; short; or obscure. Body: We shall now examine each class of Syllable Length in turn: Long Syllables: In Ancient Greek, a syllable is considered long , by nature, should it contain one of the vowels: η , ω ; or long: ᾱ , ῑ , ῡ , ; or diphthongs: αι , ει , οι , αυ , ου , υι , ευ , ηυ . Syllables that are long by nature [1] . are held for the length of two morae [2] ., which is analogous to a minim or a half note in music. Figure 2: The mi