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Mora

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 timing unit in quantitative and moraic metres; determines syllable weight in some languages.

Explore this topic in depth (1)

Tanka — Tanka is a short Japanese poem traditionally patterned 5–7–5–7–7, though its units are morae rather than English syllables. Its small scale can hold a striking movement: from scene to feeling, statement to response, or one image to another.

Detailed Definition
A mora is a unit of rhythmic weight: short syllables count as one mora, long syllables as two; moraic theory underpins Japanese and some Polynesian prosodies and is used in modern metrics to analyse syllable weight.
Example
Example in poetry:
Mora: In Japanese haiku, each mora (not syllable) counts—e.g., “Tokyo” = 4 morae (To-o-kyo-u); Classical Sanskrit meters like śloka rely on moraic weight; Latin dactylic hexameter uses long/short morae; Modern phoneticians analyze morae in rap flow
Additional Notes
Minimal unit of time in quantitative meter (short syllable). Japanese prosody term adapted to classical scansion. Essential for understanding haiku and tanka timing.
Also Known As
moraic unit moraic timing
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