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Brevis brevians
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Brevis brevians
Brevis brevians, also known as iambic shortening or correptio iambica, is a metrical feature of early Latin verse, especially Plautus and Terence, in which a pair of syllables which are theoretically short + long (u –) can be scanned as a pair of short syllables (u u). The plural is breves breviantes.
One common type is where a two-syllable word ends in a vowel which was originally long, for example volo, ibi, ego, nisi and so on. This type is also frequently found in classical Latin.
But brevis brevians also occurs in lines such as the following, in which the closed syllables hoc and om- are shortened, which would never occur in poetry of the classical period:
It is thought by many scholars that such shortenings reflect the actual pronunciation of colloquial Latin. Others, however, disagree and consider that the second type, where a closed syllable is shortened, is merely a metrical licence.
Another controversy is whether iambic shortening is caused by word accent. In most (but perhaps not all) cases the shortened syllable is unstressed, and comparison can be made to English words such as monarchy, in which the second syllable is shortened after a stressed short first syllable, compared with heptarchy, in which both the first two syllables are long. Some scholars, however, who believe that the Latin accent was not a stress-accent, disagree with this view and point to some instances in which the shortened syllable appears to be accented.
The main types of iambic shortening are as follows: (1) commonly used two-syllable words such as ibi, ubi, nisi, quasi, ego, modo, mihi, bene, male in which the final vowel is usually short even in classical Latin; (2) the first two syllables of phrases starting with a two-syllable word such as abī sīs "go, please", volō scīre "I want to know", apud forum "at the forum", recēns nātum "newly born"; (3) the first two syllables of longer words accented on the 3rd syllable, such as voluptātem "pleasure" and senectūte "old age"; (4) the first two syllables of phrases starting from a monosyllable such as quid est quod metuās? "what are you afraid of?", quod ille dīcit "what he is saying", ab exercitū "from the army", tib(i) īrātus "angry with you"; (5) more rarely, and mainly in anapaestic metres, it can occur at the end of words of cretic rhythm (– u –) such as nēminī plūra "to no one more" (this kind is known by some scholars as cretic shortening); (6) rarely it is found across word boundaries, as in ab nēmin(e) accipiēt "he will receive from no one".
Shortening usually takes place in the context of a phrase. Thus the -ī of abī is usually long at the end of a sentence but it is usually shortened in the phrase abi sīs "go, please".
Shortening only takes place after a short syllable, hence the name brevis breviāns, which is short for (syllaba) brevis breviāns (syllabam quae sequitur) "a short syllable which shortens the syllable which follows". The term brevis breviāns dates back to the 19th century, but it does not go back to antiquity, since no ancient grammarian or metrician discusses the phenomenon. The alternative name "iambic shortening" derives from the fact that sequences like volō or quid est are metrically iambs (u –).
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Brevis brevians
Brevis brevians, also known as iambic shortening or correptio iambica, is a metrical feature of early Latin verse, especially Plautus and Terence, in which a pair of syllables which are theoretically short + long (u –) can be scanned as a pair of short syllables (u u). The plural is breves breviantes.
One common type is where a two-syllable word ends in a vowel which was originally long, for example volo, ibi, ego, nisi and so on. This type is also frequently found in classical Latin.
But brevis brevians also occurs in lines such as the following, in which the closed syllables hoc and om- are shortened, which would never occur in poetry of the classical period:
It is thought by many scholars that such shortenings reflect the actual pronunciation of colloquial Latin. Others, however, disagree and consider that the second type, where a closed syllable is shortened, is merely a metrical licence.
Another controversy is whether iambic shortening is caused by word accent. In most (but perhaps not all) cases the shortened syllable is unstressed, and comparison can be made to English words such as monarchy, in which the second syllable is shortened after a stressed short first syllable, compared with heptarchy, in which both the first two syllables are long. Some scholars, however, who believe that the Latin accent was not a stress-accent, disagree with this view and point to some instances in which the shortened syllable appears to be accented.
The main types of iambic shortening are as follows: (1) commonly used two-syllable words such as ibi, ubi, nisi, quasi, ego, modo, mihi, bene, male in which the final vowel is usually short even in classical Latin; (2) the first two syllables of phrases starting with a two-syllable word such as abī sīs "go, please", volō scīre "I want to know", apud forum "at the forum", recēns nātum "newly born"; (3) the first two syllables of longer words accented on the 3rd syllable, such as voluptātem "pleasure" and senectūte "old age"; (4) the first two syllables of phrases starting from a monosyllable such as quid est quod metuās? "what are you afraid of?", quod ille dīcit "what he is saying", ab exercitū "from the army", tib(i) īrātus "angry with you"; (5) more rarely, and mainly in anapaestic metres, it can occur at the end of words of cretic rhythm (– u –) such as nēminī plūra "to no one more" (this kind is known by some scholars as cretic shortening); (6) rarely it is found across word boundaries, as in ab nēmin(e) accipiēt "he will receive from no one".
Shortening usually takes place in the context of a phrase. Thus the -ī of abī is usually long at the end of a sentence but it is usually shortened in the phrase abi sīs "go, please".
Shortening only takes place after a short syllable, hence the name brevis breviāns, which is short for (syllaba) brevis breviāns (syllabam quae sequitur) "a short syllable which shortens the syllable which follows". The term brevis breviāns dates back to the 19th century, but it does not go back to antiquity, since no ancient grammarian or metrician discusses the phenomenon. The alternative name "iambic shortening" derives from the fact that sequences like volō or quid est are metrically iambs (u –).