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Alliteration
Assonance
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repetition of the same consonant sound in consecutive or nearby words, especially their initial consonants; from the Latin alliterare, 'to begin with the same letter'
repetition of the same or similar vowel sounds in consecutive or nearby words; from the Latin assonare, 'to resound, respond to'
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Examples
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Alliteration
Coca-Cola Dunkin Donuts Weight Watchers The Great Gatsby Pride and Prejudice the more the merrier as cold as a cucumber Shakespeare Now old desire doth in his death-bed lie. Bob Dylan Lay, lady, lay Lay across my big brass bed. P.G. Wodehouse You've probably heard of Little's Liniment - It limbers up the legs. John Updike My father brought to conversations a cavernous capacity for caring that dismayed strangers. |
Assonance
Coca Cola Finger lickin' good - KFC It Beats...as it Sweeps...as it Cleans - Hoover hither and thither as nice as pie E.A. Poe Hear the mellow wedding bells. Shakespeare Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks. P.G. Wodehouse A droopy, soupy, sentimental exhibit Dylan Thomas Whales in the wake like capes and Alps Bob Dylan Once upon a time you dressed so fine Threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you? |
P.G. Wodehouse
Only active measures, promptly applied, can provide this poor pusillanimous poop with the proper pep.
I was until this moment at the beck and call of an uncle who unfortunately happens to be a mackerel monarch, or a sardine sultan or whatever these merchant princes are called who rule the fish market. He insisted on my going into the business to learn it from the bottom up, thinking no doubt that I would follow in his footsteps and eventually work my way to the position of a whitebait wizard.
Only active measures, promptly applied, can provide this poor pusillanimous poop with the proper pep.
I was until this moment at the beck and call of an uncle who unfortunately happens to be a mackerel monarch, or a sardine sultan or whatever these merchant princes are called who rule the fish market. He insisted on my going into the business to learn it from the bottom up, thinking no doubt that I would follow in his footsteps and eventually work my way to the position of a whitebait wizard.
Another kind of sound parallelism combines assonance with isocolon to produce adjacent words or clauses with symmetrical or mirrored patterns of syllable numbers. The technical name is paromoiosis.
Assonance & Isocolon
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Glengarry Glen Ross
Always be closing
KFC
Finger lickin' chicken
Walmart
Save Money. Live Better.
T.S. Eliot
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me.
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Buy today, pay later.
Glengarry Glen Ross
Always be closing
KFC
Finger lickin' chicken
Walmart
Save Money. Live Better.
T.S. Eliot
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me.
Purpose
Rhythm & Memory
Alliteration and assonance sustain rhyme and rhythm so are common in poems, lyrics and jingles. They are less common in prose. But we may use them when we want audiences to remember phrases. This is why they are common in songs, brand names and advertising slogans.
Rhetoricians may further distinguish assonance (repetition of initial consonants) from consonance (repetition of medial and final consonants).
Rhetoricians may further distinguish assonance (repetition of initial consonants) from consonance (repetition of medial and final consonants).
Consonance
pitter patter
Emily Dickinson
The soul selects her own society.
Joni Mitchell
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
pitter patter
Emily Dickinson
The soul selects her own society.
Joni Mitchell
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
Usage
Use alliteration and assonance to play music and beat rhythms for you readers. But use them sparingly or your precise prose may sound like poor poetry. Use the figures when music and memory matter most: in poetry, lyrics, rhymes, tongue-twisters and memorable phrases.
Conventional, Comical and Careless Usage
We choose matching vowel or consonant sounds to make assonance and alliteration. But unplanned repetitions of sounds occur also naturally because all languages have characteristic phonetic characters. In English, the schwa /ə/ is the commonest sound.
What are you gonna do today?
Avoid inadvertently creating alliteration and assonance because these musical strings can sound careless, comical or like jingles.
Tina Timms is a tedious teacher of trigonometry.
(Careless alliteration unless comedy is the intention)
He longs to belong in Hong Kong.
(Assonance/consonance reducing 'serious' prose to a jingle)
Keeping Up Appearances sitcom
(The weather) is completely conducive to contemplating charismatic country cottages.
P.G. Wodehouse
I signed him up for six weeks at the Cosy Comfort Kennels at Kingsbridge, Kent.
(Careless alliteration unless comedy is the intention)
He longs to belong in Hong Kong.
(Assonance/consonance reducing 'serious' prose to a jingle)
Keeping Up Appearances sitcom
(The weather) is completely conducive to contemplating charismatic country cottages.
P.G. Wodehouse
I signed him up for six weeks at the Cosy Comfort Kennels at Kingsbridge, Kent.
We might also use or shun using words that end in the same sound strings. Homoioteleuton is the jaw-breaking name for this. When sound strings repeat in any positions across neighbouring words this is called tautophony.
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Shakespeare
My mother weeping, my father wailing, my sister crying, our maid howling, our cat wringing her hands |
Bureaucracy Speak
The function of our organization is the facilitation of the distribution of pension dispensations. |