Re: Scansion and LaTeX

david.short.1978@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Jan 26, 4:27 am, "Steven G. Harms" <steven.ha...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'm studying Latin poetry right now and would like to be able to type
my notes. In need, therefore, to be able to put long or short marks
above the syllables. LaTeX can accomplish this on a per-character
basis with long-sound marks and short-sound marks, but scansion marks
( i think ) should be above the line written. Ultimately I would like
something like

- v v/- v v/ - - / - - / - v v / - -
Arma virumque cano troiae qui primus ab oris

Note that the 'o' in 'cano,' the i in 'qui', and the 'i' in 'oris' all
have a macron (long-mark) over them. Thus the scansion notation
should be above the character-bonded length notation.


Indeed, the misuse of macrons and breves to indicate vowel length
(instead of syllable length), means that you have to put them above
the line if you want it to be clear that you are in fact wanting to
indicate syllable length.

In the texts that I have seen, however, I have not seen diacritics
used on the letters in combination with marks above the line. It
seems to me that scholars tend to do either one or the other.

Note that although macrons and breves are used by all modern
dictionaries to indicate vowel length, the actual Roman practice was
to use an apex on long vowels and leave short vowels unmarked. If you
follow this elegant ancient practice, you can safely use macrons and
breves exclusively for syllable length, and not be obliged to keep
them above the line. Just a suggestion.

I think it was Palmer or Sidney Allen who suggested that, properly, only vowels are long (productae) or short (correptae) and that syllables are heavy or light (but not in the sense of tonic accent). Syllable weight is wholly determined by either vowel length or consecutive consonants. Neither macra nor apices nor breves are part of written Latin per se but are pedagogical aids, like the diacritics in Hebrew. In inscriptions they are probably less common that doubled vowels. Since the OP was talking about Latin scansion, and since Latin uses no diacritics, then It seems to me that he can incorporate the scansion symbology in-line or use double spacing with a monospace font and scansion marks in the line above.
.

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