Investigating and Completing Khanlari’s Theory on Metrical Units

Metrical units have a special place in the study of prosody, and as such, scholars have always paid particular attention to their scansion and naming. Parviz Natel Khanlari was one of the first to address the topic of metrical units in modern Persian prosody. Khanlari proposed ten metrical units—four of which are disyllabic and six trisyllabic—to describe the meter of Persian poetry. Despite the innovation of this new approach in prosody, some weaknesses prevented it from gaining acceptance among scholars. This research critically evaluates Khanlari’s method of structuring metrical units, aiming to identify its strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, by addressing these weaknesses and improving the theory, it seeks to enhance the effectiveness of this method. This study demonstrates that by completing and refining Khanlari’s approach, it is capable of describing Persian poetic meter, providing a novel understanding of the nature of metrical patterns, and can aid in simplifying the teaching of prosody while deepening its comprehension. For the first time, in this study, Khanlari’s units are practically applied, and the following proposals are made to complete his theory: organizing scansion based on repetition and alternation while avoiding irregular patterns, showing repetitions and alternations larger than three syllables; adding a unit to Khanlari’s six trisyllabic units; using a shortened monosyllabic unit and explaining the naming of shortened units.