Quick scansion question

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Kasper
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Quick scansion question

Post by Kasper »

Do "ai" and "oi" scan long or short? I'm rather confused on this - is it variable perchance? :?
“Cum ego verbo utar,” Humpty Dumpty dixit voce contempta, “indicat illud quod optem – nec plus nec minus.”
“Est tamen rogatio” dixit Alice, “an efficere verba tot res indicare possis.”
“Rogatio est, “Humpty Dumpty responsit, “quae fiat magister – id cunctum est.”

Eureka
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Post by Eureka »

Long, but if they are on the end of a word, and the next word begins with a vowel, then they can be short in Homer. (I don't know about other poets.)

whiteoctave
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Post by whiteoctave »

yes, as Eureka states, they are long by nature. they can undergo correption, as once again mentioned by E., in Homer as well as later writers in epic or Ionic style verse. curiously, however, they appear to have been regarded as short in nature in terms of determining a given word's accent, excepting that is the optative forms.

~D

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