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The word dactylos
is Greek for "finger" (and for "toe" as well, which picks up on the notion of
feet). The dactyl
is therefore a snippet of rhythm that resembles, at least aurally, a finger. A
dactyl has the following rhythmic shape: one
long syllable (or  ),
which represents the long phalanx (bone) of the finger, plus two shorts ( ),
which represent the two short phalanges. Figure A will illustrate the concept
better than any further remarks. |
| In
rhythmic terms, the two short syllables are equivalent in tempo to the long syllable,
just as in music two half notes equal one whole note (or two eighths equal one
quarter, and so on). In recitation, the dactyl
usually sounds like "dum-diddy," with "dum" equal to ,
and "diddy" to .
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