Dear friends,

this is a discussion base on Chapter 15 of Charles Duroiselle's
Grammar. Unfortunately, the material I have is not complete. Sections
§635 to §640 are missing. I like to appeal to anyone who have the
missing sections to contact us and provide the materials for this study.

Without further ado, let us continue.

629. The eight-syllable feet, known in Paali as the a.t.thaga.na are
as follows:

Syllables Paali English
¯ ¯ ¯ ma Molossus
˘ ˘ ˘ na Tribach
¯ ˘ ˘ bhaa Dactyl
˘ ¯ ¯ ya Bacchic
˘ ¯ ˘ ja Amphibrach
˘ ˘ ¯ sa Anapaest
¯ ˘ ¯ ra Cretic
¯ ¯ ˘ ta Antibacchic

<YP> As we have previously noted, the descriptions given by the author
requires some clarification. The a.t.thaga.na is a set of "foot's" (or
feet), each foot containing three syllables (trisyllabic), which can
be either short or long and in any combination, hence giving us eight
possible configurations. These are shown above, together with the Pali
and English names of the feet.

<YP>If you like to understand further the metrical foot in general,
please read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot_(prosody)

630. The short vowels in Paali are a, i, u, the long vowels are aa,
ii, uu, e, o. When a, i or u is followed by a double consonant, it is
prosodically long. For instance, the first as well as the second a in
cakka~nca, is long because followed by kk and ~nc respectively. Before
niggahita (.m) a short vowel is also always prosodically long. Thus in
sacca.m, the a before .m is long. In poetry, a naturally short vowel
is occasionally lengthened and a naturally long one shortened to meet
the exigencies of the metre. In order to make a short vowel long, the
consonant following it is sometimes doubled.

<YP> In summary, a vowel is Pali prosody is usually long, with the
exception: it is a short vowel NOT followed by a double consonant.

631. There are three classes of metres, termed sama, addhasama, and
visama. When the syllables in all the paadas are exactly alike the
metre is called sama; when those in the first and third and those in
the second and fourth paadas are alike it is addhasama; and when all
the paadas or verses are different, the metre is termed visama.

<YP> The term sama means equal, a Sama metre means all the lines have
the same syllables. The term addha means half, so addhasama literally
means halfly equal. An Addhasama metre occurs when the odd-numbered
lines employ one set of syllables, while the even-numbered lines
employ another. Visama, meaning unequal, is the opposite of sama. In a
Visama metre, there is no common syllabic arrangement between any two
lines.

1. The Sama Class

632. In gaathas of this class, the syllables in each paada may range
from six up to twenty-two. The names of the seventeen kinds of metres
are as follows:

* gaayatti 6 syllables
* u.nhi 7 syllables
* anu.t.thubha.m 8 syllables
* brahati 9 syllables
* panti 10 syllables
* tu.t.thubha.m 11 syllables
* jagati 12 syllables
* atijagati 13 syllables
* sakkarii 14 syllables
* atisakkarii 15 syllables
* a.t.thi 16 syllables
* atya.t.thi 17 syllables
* dhuti 18 syllables
* atidhuti 19 syllables
* kati 20 syllables
* pakati 21 syllables
* akati 22 syllables

<YP> The Sama metres are further classified according to the number of
syllables in each paada.



metta,
Yong Peng.