n., pl. -dies.

1. The study of the metrical structure of verse.
2. A particular system of versification.

[Middle English prosodie, from Latin prosōdia, accent, from Greek prosōidiā, song sung to music, accent : pros-, pros- + ōidē, song; see ode.]

prosodic pro·sod'ic (prə-sŏd'ĭk) adj.
prosodically pro·sod'i·cal·ly adv.
prosodist pros'o·dist n.

prosody [pros‐ŏdi], the systematic study of versification, covering the principles of metre, rhythm, rhyme, and stanza forms; or a particular system of versification. In linguistics, the term is applied to patterns of stress and intonation in ordinary speech. Prosody in the literary sense is also known as metrics.

Adjective: prosodic.

See also scansion.

For more information on prosody, visit Britannica.com.

prosody, the study of versification; in Greek and Latin in particular, the study of the rules which govern the quantity (i.e. length) of syllables in verse (see METRE, GREEK 1). Syllables are classified according to the length of time they took to pronounce and are called long, short, or anceps (‘ambivalent’, i.e. either long or short). A syllable is long or short ‘by nature’ according as it contains either a long vowel or diphthong, or a short vowel. The general rules of Greek and Latin prosody (to which there are exceptions) are the following.

1. Greek

(i) By nature the vowels η and ω are long, ɛ and ο short; ɑ, ι, and υ are sometimes long by nature, sometimes short. Diphthongs are long (i.e. ɑι, ɑυ, ει, ευ, ηυ, οι, ου, υι, ᾳ, ῃ, ῳ), except that οι and ɑι, which appear to have been of shorter duration, are sometimes scanned short.
(ii) A syllable long by nature is sometimes shortened if it comes immediately before another vowel. This happens most often at the end of a word (i.e. before another word beginning with a vowel). The shortening is known as correption (and see (iii) below).
(iii) A syllable that is short by nature is lengthened in pronunciation, and so becomes long ‘by position’, if the vowel is immediately followed by two (or more) consonants or by a so-called double consonant, ζ (= sd), ξ (= ks), or ψ (= ps), whether or not the consonants are in the same word. There is an exception to this general rule: in Attic poetry (which includes tragedy and comedy), a naturally short syllable usually remains short if it is followed by one of several combinations of two consonants, the first a so-called ‘mute’ (for this purpose one of π, β, ϕ, τ, δ, θ, ϰ, γ, χ), and the second a ‘liquid’ (λ, ϱ, μ, ν). This phenomenon is known as Attic correption.

2. Latin

(i) The vowels a, e, i, o, u (and y) are sometimes long by nature, sometimes short. Diphthongs (ae, au, ei, ou, oe) are long. A vowel which immediately precedes another vowel in the same word but is not part of a diphthong is generally short.
(ii) Correption of a final long syllable (see 1 (ii) above) is rare.
(iii) A syllable that is short by nature is lengthened in pronunciation, and so becomes long ‘by position’, if the vowel is immediately followed by two (or more) consonants, or by a double consonant, x (= ks) or z (= Greek ζ). (When the ‘semi-consonants’ i and u are equivalent to English j or v they are counted as consonants; h is discounted; qu is counted as a single consonant.)
(iv) An exception to (iii) is that short syllables remain short before certain combinations of so-called ‘mute’ and ‘liquid’ consonants (compare 1 (iii) above), i.e. b, c, d, f, g, p, t followed by l or r. This licence does not occur when the two consonants belong to different words or to different parts of a compound verb (e.g. ābrumpere).

The study of the way variations of intonation—pitch, loudness, tempo, and rhythm—affect the significance of utterances.

the study of versification; esp: the systematic study of metrical structure

The general term for the structure of poetry; the science of versification according to syllabic quantity, accent, etc.; the systematic study of poetic meter. All types of metrical feet, patterns of sound and rhyme, kinds of stanzaic forms, etc., fall within its domain.

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - prosodi, metrik

Nederlands (Dutch)
versleer

Français (French)
n. - prosodie

Deutsch (German)
n. - Verslehre, Prosodie

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - προσωδία

Italiano (Italian)
prosodia

Português (Portuguese)
n. - prosódia (f) (Mús.)

Русский (Russian)
просодия

Español (Spanish)
n. - prosodia, métrica

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - metrik, prosodi

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
诗体论, 作诗法, 韵律学

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 詩體論, 作詩法, 韻律學

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 시형론, 운율학

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 作詩法, 詩形論, 韻律学, 韻律

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) دراسه أوزان الشعر‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮תורת המשקל, חקר מקצבי הדיבור, פרוסודיה‬

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