Further Aspects of Sound-Patterning in the Poema de Mio Cid

PROFESSOR Smith's article on sounds in the PMC develops interestingly the topic raised by de Chasca.' The former's position is somewhere between the latter's and that of Professor Michael in his review of de Chasca's book and in his own edition of the poem.2 Smith is very concerned to attribute a degree of artistic consciousness to the poet, in keeping with his views on learned or literate intervention in the work. Michael is by no means antagonistic to general artistic views on the PMC: his opinion here is merely concerned with internal rhyme, which he rejects on grounds of unverifiability and the likelihood of simple coincidence. Smith, of course, introduces several additional points on sound patterns, beyond that of internal rhyme, but I will start again at that phenomenon. De Chasca's table of figures for internal rhymes and repetitions lead to the conclusion that something in excess of 20% of the PMC contains these elements. Some room should be left for sheer coincidence: there are sixteen vowel combinations in the list, which really means that there is a 1:16 chance of a repeated type, since every line must contain a caesura word from that range of terminants. There are a very few further combinations such as -u in Calatazt (572, 626, 633, etc.), which do not appear in

Acoustics · Art · Physics · Sound (geography · Comparative Literary Analysis and Criticism · Medieval Iberian Studies · Spanish Literature and Culture Studies