meter.grm: compound words
jillianchang opened this issue · comments
In compound words with prepositions such as ad, ab, sub, dē, in, etc., I think the preposition should be treated as one syllable (but not always). As it is now, the meter grammar attaches the last consonant of the preposition as the onset of the next syllable. The issue would be to know in which cases the prefix in the compound word (if the subsequent syllable begins with a vowel) should be treated as one syllable, or whether the prefix should cause a split.
Example:
"ex numerō subit; ac magnō tellūris amōre"
subit is [su.bit] (i.e. the "b" is the onset)
"Ūnus abest, mediō in flūctū quem vīdimus ipsī"
abest is [ab.estː] (i.e. the "b" is the coda)
I remember reading this somewhere---is this mentioned in Allen?
Why do you say it's [ab.est] here? I just scanned it and came to the opposite conclusion: first foot is a dactyl.
Knowing where a preposition like this is difficult without adding a full-blown morphological analyzer to the system since there are going to be so many false positives (like subit).
Sorry, you are right about [a.best].
I didn't get it from Allen, actually. I saw a picture of "The Beginners Latin Boo" by William C. Collar posted online that takes about it.
You are probably correct that the prefixes are split, I guess we can come back to it if we find otherwise?
I wonder if this is a case where it's varaible and we can treat it in optional.grm down the line.
This relates to our discussion elsewhere of intervocalic i that fails to geminate in compounds like biiugo and vowel-initial words prefixed with prae-.