Subject: Re: [lojban] metre

From: "Lionel Vidal" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2002 10:57:00 +0200

And:
> 3.
> Do you think that the native metres of Lojbanistan are made
> up of regular patterns of strong and weak syllables?
Greg:
>Yes, what else would they be made up of ?

Many things are possible apart from patterns of weak and
strong syllables. Here are just a few, picked from existing
natlangs:
- only the number of syllables counts (with sometimes a slightly
different definition for the poetic syllable), usually following a
repetitive pattern (all verses worth 12, or 12-8 repeated or...);
the repartition of weak and strong syllables are still used to give
internal tempi to the metres.
- some phonemes are classified (usually vowels) and the metre consists
of some patterns of phonemes classes.
- a metre is a whole paragraph (in french it is called a poetic 'verset',
but I did not find an english word for it), using a particular structure,
either in the sentences constructions, the number of syllables of each
sentences, or even the semantic structure alone (or any mix).
- only the length of the syllables (which is defined for each) are used in
the patterns (note that this can be different from the strong or weak
syllables: for instance the latin metre is mostly externally based
on syllable length patterns but with an internal tempo given by the
stressed syllables, which could be subtly differently spreaded
in the verse)
....

Now what could be call a native metre in any language? In most natlangs
people are still arguing on what should be called native. IMO, there
is none intrinsically, only the poet himself can make by its talent
a metre 'native'.
To take the latin example again, before Virgile, the native metre was
thought to be the 'vers saturnien', but after Virgile, the
'hexametre dactylique' (sorry I don't know the english glosses for
technical poetic terms), borrowed from Greece, became indeed the
native metre, not because of any superior intrinsic values well adapted
to latin (although it has some obviously, but like many others), but mainly
because Virgiles and others geniuses used it as their main medium
to magnify latin.

In other words, write good enough poetry, and the metre you chose
will be the native one :-)

-- Lionel