Dactyl (poetry)

The dactyl (Greek δάκτυλος, daktylos, " finger ", plural: dactyls ) refers to a metric metrical foot and a meter from behind the other a heavy ( long ) and two light ( short ) syllables ( four Moren ). One speaks of a dactylic rhythm, mutatis mutandis.

The reverse meter ( antonym ) consisting of two light and a heavy syllable is anapest. Other well-known versification are iambic and trochaic.

The dactyl is used mainly in the hexameter use. The oldest written in dactyls work is the Greek Iliad. The dactyl was later introduced with the hexameter in Latin poetry, where it was first used by Quintus Ennius in his Annales.

Ancient use

Scheme: - ‿ ‿

Scheme: long - short - short

• Greek example: Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληιάδεω Αχιλῆος ( Homer, Iliad Α 1)

• Latin example: Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus from oris.

The clock determines the rhyme.

Latter-day use

On the German versification of the dactyl was introduced in the era of classical music as a sequence of a stressed and two unstressed syllables.

Diagram: - u u

Scheme: stressed - unstressed - unstressed

Examples: "Do you want freedom, then are not servants " ( Erich difficulty, to start 1).

As in the German pronunciation usually the trunk, or in compound words the root of the first word is stressed, find any number of words in the German language, which are pronounced as dactyls:

• Heavenward; Air waybill, roller coaster, drive, fountain pen, Lufthansa, wonderful

The word dactyl is autologous. The image of the finger is because this is how the metrical foot of one long and two short parts.

• Metrical foot / meter