OTP: Lesson - The Scansion of Poetry - Syllabification

The Scansion of Poetry - Syllabification

The first step to being able to scan a line of Latin poetry is determining the syllables of that line. Latin uses a fairly straightforward set of syllabification rules:

1. A Latin word has an equal number of syllables as it has vowels or diphthongs.
2. Within a word, syllables tend to end with a vowel/diphthong (note: English tends to end with a consonant, though the rules are less rigid.) 
   • mater = ma/ter
     • in English this would be divided mat/er
   • nauta = nau/ta
3. In general, divide between two consonants. If there are more than two, divide after the first:
   • puella = pu/el/la
   • congregatio = con/gre/ga/ti/o
4. Certain consonant pairs do not separate. English tends to have these same pairings.
   • When you combine [b, c, d, g, k, p, t] with either L or R do not divide:
     • abrasus = a/bra/sus
     • egressio = e/gres/si/o
   • Additionally: qu, gu, ph, ch, th do not separate (both qu and gu are considered single consonants in Latin):
     • equi = e/qui
       • Pronounced: eh-kwee
     • amphitheatrum = am/phi/the/a/trum

Let's take a close look at the first line of Vergil's Aeneid in Latin, and then determine how many syllables each word contains:

• Arma virumque cano Troiae qui primus ab oris

Syllable Examples

Latin Word	Number of Syllables	Syllable Breakdown
Arma	2	ar-ma
virumque	3	vi-rum-que
cano	2	ca-no
Troiae	2	Tro-iae (i = consonant; ae = diphthong)
qui	1	qui
primus	2	pri-mus
ab	1	ab
oris	2	o-ris