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:

1. long;
2. short;
3. 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 minim is analogous to a syllable of length two morae.

Short Syllables:

In Ancient Greek, a syllable is considered short by nature should it contain one of the short vowels:

α , ε , ι , ο , υ[3].

. Syllables that are short by nature are held for the length of one mora, which is analogous to a crotchet, or a quarter note, in music.

Figure 3:  The crotchet is analogous to a syllable of length one mora.

Obscure Syllables:

In Ancient Greek, iota subscripts are considered to be obscure syllables:

ᾳ , ῃ , ῳ

. In Ancient Greek, the above iotas are pronounced:

/ˈaː.ɪ/ , /ˈeː.ɪ/ , /ˈˈɔː.ɪ/

, or:

/ˈaː.(ɪ)/ , /ˈeː.(ɪ)/ , /ˈˈɔː.(ɪ)/

, or:

/ˈaː.^ɪ/ , /ˈeː.^ɪ/ , /ˈˈɔː.^ɪ/

. Obscure syllables are so short, that their value – in terms of morae – is not reckoned.  Obscure syllables are zero morae in length.  This is analogous to a grace note in music.

Figure 4:  The grace note is analogous to a syllable of length zero morae.

Conclusion:

Knowing how to identify long and short syllables in Ancient Greek will aid us in our study of accentuation – which is the study of which syllables to stress, and which syllables to leave unstressed – and contonation – which is the study of the rise and fall of pitch across Ancient-Greek syllables.

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[1].  There also exist syllables that are long by position, however these syllables are only considered long for the purposes of contonation, i.e. figuring out which type of accent to use and upon which syllable to use it.  A short vowel, such as α , ε , ι , ο & υ, can become long by position, should they procede two or more consonants, or should they procede the double-consonants : ζ , ξ & ψ.  However, syllables that are long by position, are still only held for one mora.

[2].  The English grammatical term, ‘mora,’ is derived from the Latin 1^st-declension feminine noun, ‘mora, morae,’

, which means ‘delay,’ or ‘duration of time.’  In English, we derive such words as ‘moratorium’ from this.  Hence the etymological meanings: ‘for how long ought we to delay upon this syllable;’ ‘for what duration of time ought we to sustain [the pronunciation of] this syllable.’  etc.

[3].  One very often observes the short syllables , a, ι , υ written with breves, so as to distinguish them from their long counterparts: ᾰ , ῐ , ῠ.  However, it is safe to assume that when these three vowels do not have a macron or a tilde atop them, that they are short. The English grammatical term, ‘breve,’ is derived from the Latin 3^rd-declension adjective, ‘ brevis, brevis, brevium,’ which means ‘short.’  This breve diacritic – as well as the vowel that it is applied to – is also sometimes termed a ‘brachy;’ derived from the Ancient-Greek 1^st/3^rd-declension adjective, ‘βραχύς’ or, when transliterated: ‘brachús’ which means ‘short.’