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Breve

Meter
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A prosodic mark (˘) used in scansion to indicate a short (in quantitative meter) or unstressed (in accentual-syllabic meter) syllable.

Detailed Definition
A Breve is a metrical symbol (˘) indicating a short or unstressed syllable in classical prosody, opposite the macron (¯) for long/stressed syllables; understanding breves is essential for scanning quantitative meter in Greek and Latin verse, and the term occasionally appears in English prosody discussions to denote light syllables within metrical feet like the iamb or anapest.
Example
Example in poetry:
Breve in scansion marks unstressed syllable: "a˘BOVE"; In classical metrics, breve denotes short vowel; Contemporary prosody uses breve in metrical diagrams; The symbol (˘) contrasts with macron (¯) for stressed; Breve helps visualize rhythmic patterns
Additional Notes
Breve (˘) is a metrical mark indicating a short or unstressed syllable; essential for scansion, it helps map a poem’s rhythmic pattern alongside the macron (–) for stressed syllables.
Also Known As
Short syllable unstressed syllable brief mark short quantity
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