The Stress System of the Hiberno-Latin Hendecasyllable
Michael W. Herren · 2024
THIS article, written in honour of Professor Brian Ó Cuív, is the third in a series of studies that deal with the problem of stress in insular rhythmical verse, and most particularly in Hiberno-Latin rhythmical verse. 1 The essential problem posed in this programme of research is whether it is possible to isolate what is characteristically ‘insular’ – and more especially Irish-insular – from the surviving material of early rhythmical verse. 2 These studies are based on the solid and universally accepted method of analyzing rhythmical verse developed by Dag Norberg in a series of books. 3 The kernel of the Norbergian method can be summarized in the phrase imitation de la structure. This means that the structure of a line of quantitative verse was taken over into rhythmical (non-quantitative) verse. Structure embraces four elements: (1) the number of a syllables in a line; (2) the type of line-ending, i.e. proparoxytone (‘rising’) or paroxytone (‘falling’); (3) word-foot divisions; (4) stress pattern. 4 With respect to the last, Norberg established conclusively that it was not the ictus-pattern of the ancient model that was imitated, but rather its word-accent pattern. Norberg summarizes his method succinctly with the following words: Nous avons formulé le résultat de nos recherches de la manière suivante: on lisait les anciens vers quantitatifs en respectant les accents ordinaires commes s’ils avaient de la prose et en prenant garde aux coupes et à la répartitions des mots dans les vers, puis on imitait l’image rythmique ainsi obtenue sans se soucier de la quantité. 5