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short ionic pair

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 metrical foot consisting of two short syllables followed by two long syllables

Detailed Definition
Short ionic pair refers to a metrical unit in classical prosody consisting of two short syllables followed by two long ones (in quantitative terms), forming a variant of the Ionic foot used for rhythmic variety in lyric poetry.
Example
Example in poetry:
The metrical foot “˘ ˘ – –” as in Greek lyric fragments; In Sappho: “ποικιλόθρον’ ἀθάνατ’ Ἀφροδίτα” contains short ionic pairs; An English approximation: “in the BRIGHT SUN”; A reconstructed line: “μαλακαῖσιν ἐν χερσίν” featuring double-short followed by double-long.
Additional Notes
A short ionic pair (˘ ˘ – –) is the basic Ionic foot; common in Greek lyric but rare in English; creates a “rolling” or wave-like rhythm.
Also Known As
Pyrrhic-spondee foot Ionic minor Double-short Ionic foot Ionic dimeter catalectic
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