prosody

Noun

prosody (countable and uncountable, plural prosodies)

1. The study of rhythm, intonation, stress, and related attributes in speech.
   • An accurate acquaintance with the Prosody and Metres of the Greek Language is so necessary an accompaniment of true scholarship, that any attempt to advocate its claims to the notice of the student would be entirely superfluous.1838, Charles Anthon, A System of Greek Prosody and Metre, Harper & Brothers, page v
   • The aim of this book is to answer the question WHAT DID GREEK PROSODY SOUND LIKE? The study of prosody stands at the intersection of a number of quite disparate disciplines, as illustrated in the diagram overleaf.1994, A. M. Devine, Laurence D. Stephens, The Prosody of Greek Speech, Oxford University Press, page v
2. The study of poetic meter; the patterns of sounds and rhythms in verse.
   • But the system of prosody in Samson plainly forbids extrametrical syllables in the midst of the line, and there is certainly no other example.1894, Robert Bridges, Milton's Prosody, Oxford University Press, page 30
   • Or again, Otto Eißfeldt's eight-page summary of conflicting scholarly theories on biblical prosody painfully illustrates how the scholars have read biblical poetry with roughly the intellectual apparatus appropriate to the decipherment of cuneiform inscriptions, multiplying confusion by the...1981, Robert Alter, “A Literary Approach to the Bible”, in The Art of Biblical Narrative, page 14