syllaba anceps

== English == === Etymology === Latin: syllaba (“syllable”) + anceps (“double-headed, uncertain”) === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation) enPR: sĭʹləbə ănʹsĕps, IPA(key): /ˈsɪləbə ˈænsɛps/ === Noun === syllaba anceps (plural syllabae ancipites) (prosody) A syllable of unfixed or undecided weight. 1908, Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt [eds.], The Oxyrhynchus Papyri (Egypt Exploration Fund), volume 5, issues 840–844, page 17 Syllabae ancipites at the ends of lines are […] ante 1971, Arthur E. Gordon, The Letter Names of the Latin Alphabet (1973, University of California Press, →ISBN; volume 9 of University of California Publications: Classical Studies), part VI: “Conclusions”, § 1: ‘The Ancient Evidence’, page 51 The name of L constitutes one syllable, but its position at the end of the (dactylic-hexameter) line makes it a syllaba anceps, either long or short, and any one of three interpretations seems possible: el (with the preceding word, geminat, having a long final syllable, the A retaining its original length, as we find in even later poets), or le (with Strzelecki, the E being long or short), or ll (with Marx), i.e., sonant/syllabic l (as others put it). == Latin == === Pronunciation === (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈsyl.la.ba ˈaŋ.kɛps] (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈsil.la.ba ˈan̠ʲ.t͡ʃeps] === Noun === syllaba anceps f (genitive syllabae ancipitis); first declension (prosody) A syllable of unfixed or undecided weight. ==== Declension ==== First-declension noun with a third-declension adjective.