scanner

A tool for the syllabification of Latin words and scanning of verse lines

Arma virumque canō Trōiae quī prīmus ab ōrīs
- u  u -  u   u -  -  -   -   -  u   u  --   
The line is ✅ valid hexameter

Ītaliam fātō profugus Lāviniaque vēnit
-u u -  - -  u  u -   - u u uu   - u   
The line is ❌ invalid hexameter

Ītaliam fātō profugus Lāvinjaque vēnit
-u u -  - -  u  u -   - -  u u   - u   
The line is ✅ valid hexameter

lītora multum_ille_et terrīs iactātus et altō
- u u  -  -     -     -  -   -  - u   u  - -  
The line is ✅ valid hexameter

vī superum saevae memorem Iūnōnis ob īram
-  u u -   -  -   u u -   - - u   u  -u   
The line is ✅ valid hexameter

The Syllabifier

The syllabifier (see source file) takes a Latin word as input and produces its syllable composition. It does so by following the main rules of Latin syllabification, those being:

Every syllable contains a single vowel or a diphthong
Consonants prefer to start a syllable
Multiple consonants will leave the final consonant for the following syllable
Double consonants are broken up

As an example, here is the word obiectum syllabified (the supine in "-um" of the verb obiciō):

ob.iec.tum
-  -   u

In this example, a few of the rules above are applied:

Each syllable has a vowel (rule 1)
Rule 3 is applied to the b and consonantal i (ob.iectum)
Rule 3 is once again applied to the c and t (iec.tum)

Both cases where rule 3 was applied are marked long (-) by position. The final syllable is marked short (u) because there is a single consonant ending the syllable and the vowel is short.

The syllabifier can usually infer consonantal i (shown in this example), so j is often not necessary.

Limitations

Macrons must be provided for correct syllable length
No attempt is made to derive consonantal u: v is required in order to syllabify properly

The Scanner

The scanner (see source file) takes a series of Latin words as input and provides the modified long and short qualities, using some Latin verse rules:

Long by position works across word boundaries
Open syllables (syllables ending with a vowel) elide with those starting with a vowel
A final -um is nasalized and elides with syllables starting with a vowel

This list of rules is not the complete set, but it is all the scanner currently supports. Further iterations will include h-elision among other things.

Example:

Arma virumque canō Trōiae quī prīmus ab ōrīs
- u  u -  u   u -  -  -   -   -  u   u  --

Verse Verification

The scanner can determine whether a given line of verse falls under a certain meter (as of now, the only meter supported is dactylic hexameter, denoted by Scanner.Meter.hexameter). It does this by reverse template matching (reading from right to left) the metrical feet allowed onto the words.