Practice question · Select all that apply
Which are true of syllable counting in Spanish verse?
Hints
- Three describe the counting conventions; one confuses syllables with stresses.
- Sinalefa is what makes written and counted syllables diverge.
Show the answer
- A. Vowels merge across word boundaries by sinalefa
- C. The count runs to the last stressed syllable plus one
- D. A line of eleven written syllables may count as ten
Why
Sinalefa merges a word-final vowel with a following word-initial one, so written and metrical counts routinely differ. That is why counting a Spanish line the way you would count an English one produces the wrong answer, and why the count is a convention to learn rather than a fact to observe.
Practise Poetic Traditions I: the Medieval and Renaissance Lyric
The app has 4 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Literature I is free to start.
More questions on Poetic Traditions I: the Medieval and Renaissance Lyric
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