Alliteration or What images do magic gnomes draw for us? What is alliteration.

There are many literary and linguistic terms, the meaning of which is not fully known to us. Therefore, in this article we will try to deal with alliteration, where it can be found, why it is interesting. For many readers, it will be a discovery that this phenomenon occurs in our lives more than often. Often lines with alliteration are composed on the go by those people who have a penchant for poetry.

Different interpretation of the term

So, alliteration is a kind of consonance, which is formed due to the repetition of identical or similar in sounding consonants used at the beginning of a word. Speaking more broadly about what alliteration is, it can be noted that this is a canonized literary device, which, although based on a combination of similar sounds, has nothing to do with rhyme. If we consider the interpretation of this term even easier, then alliteration has a distant resemblance to rhyme. However, in this case, consonances will take place not at the end of each line, but at its beginning.

A few examples

To understand what alliteration is, it is enough to plunge into the world of folk sayings and sayings. It is in those short lines that, as it were, teach us to live correctly, this mysterious literary term is very clearly spelled out. As an example, you can recite the proverb "Schi and porridge are our food." Here we see both alliteration, which is at the beginning of the first words, and rhyme, which makes this saying even more melodic. The words “You can’t hide an awl in a bag”, “Easier than a steamed turnip” and others can also serve as a similar example.

The most beautiful world of poetry

Also, to understand what alliteration is, we will be helped by poems of famous Russian poets. Surprisingly, the most famous geniuses of the Golden Age - Pushkin and Lermontov - were the leaders in using this technique in practice. Mikhail Yuryevich, for example, owned the following words: “I don’t expect anything from life. And I do not feel sorry for the past at all. Well, Pushkin's famous verse with the words “A sad time! Oh charm! Your parting beauty is pleasant to me, ”is an example of this canonical technique that everyone hears.

Past and present alliteration

Poems with alliteration can be found in A. Blok, as well as in some others. Similar takes place in the oldest Russian chronicle work - “The Tale of Igor's Campaign”, in the poems of Nekrasov, Severyanin and Mayakovsky. Often in such works, alliteration alternates with rhyme, due to which the poem is perceived by the ear as something non-standard, unexpected, very interesting.

The perception of this

It is generally accepted that of all the techniques in literature, alliteration is best determined by ear. Examples of such sound combinations were presented above, so you can, by reading them again, catch that the sound connection between spoken words can only be noticed if you hear them. On the letter, it is impossible to catch these consonances. Perhaps that is why alliteration has taken root so firmly in

The article will talk about what alliteration is. First, let's define the concept, and then move on to examples. Alliteration is the repetition of identical consonants, which gives a special sound expressiveness to the text.

Alliteration refers to the fairly frequent use of certain consonants throughout the text or in a certain segment of it. Alliteration is not spoken of if the sound repetition is a consequence of the repetition of morphemes.

Alliteration in proverbs and sayings

Many proverbs and sayings are built on alliteration:

• Meli, Emelya, your week;
• From the pot two inches;
• Easier than a steamed turnip;
• Worldly rumor is a sea wave;
• Look at the root.

Reception of alliteration in tongue twisters

Our tongue twisters are also rich in alliteration:

• Buy a bale of spades;
• The quail swaddled the quail;
• The reader honors reading;
• Three woodcutters are chopping wood;
• Two Varis came to Clara;
• Popcorn bag;
• The tree has needles;
• I praise halva.

Alliteration in Russian literature

About what alliteration is in literature, you need to speak directly with examples.

1. Already in the "Tale of Igor's Campaign" this technique is found:

   "The trumpets are blowing in Novegrad, the banners are standing in Putivl ...".

2. But N. Nekrasov describes the Volga:

   "Volga, Volga, spring full of water...".

3. Alliteration often serves as onomatopoeia. Here, for example, are a few lines from Derzhavin's poem:

   "Rumbling echo in the mountains ...".

   Here the poet seeks to recreate the rumble of a formidable element.

4. It is obvious that the verses of the Symbolists cultivate alliteration. However, the sense of proportion is often violated here. Alliteration is sometimes pretentious and annoying. Balmont's poem "The Longing Boat" is built on alliterative sounds:

   "Evening. Seashore. Sighs of the wind ...

   ... A storm is close, it beats against the shore

   Alien to the charms of the black boat ... ".

5. There is the concept of "alliterative verse". It requires sound repetitions in certain places of the poem, for example, in the initial syllables. The Kyrgyz epic Manas (translated by L. Penkovsky) is an example of anaphoric alliteration:

   "We rowed heaps of gold,

   We were wearing mustelian hats,

   We wore a sash of silk ... "

What alliteration is, the examples given in the article illustrate very clearly. Therefore, it will not be difficult for you to see this technique in the text.

Where is it used? The very word "alliteration" has latin roots and means "letter to letter". This is one of the types of repetition of sounds, namely consonants, as a rule, at the beginning of words. Can be repeated and attached to consonants but not necessarily. Thanks to this repetition, you can achieve the most different sounds th effects. The howling of a storm, the roar of the waves, the splashing of water, malicious laughter or tears of joy ... - there is no need to inform the reader about them with the help of epithets. It is enough to use such an example as alliteration. Examples in poetry are very numerous, however, do not confuse alliteration with other types of repetition. It involves the repetition of only the same or similar consonants, but not words or phrases.

Some examples of successful use of alliteration

Skillful, that is, moderate use of alliteration is found in abundance in the poems of the classics. Pasternak, for example, felt this technique very subtly. His famous poem“Winter Night” (“A candle burned on the table ...”) is one of the most striking examples. The repetition of the consonants "m" and "l", soft, rounded, enhances the feeling of the boundlessness of the blizzard, and the sounds "t" and "k" allow you to convey the sound of shoes that have fallen to the floor. We can also see the repetition of the letter "l" in Blok's poem "On valor, on exploits, on glory ...". And if for Pasternak this helped to draw the image of a gently creeping universal blizzard, then for Blok the repeated “l” gives the whole poem an unprecedented comforting smoothness - this is sadness about the past, which attracts, as before, but suffering has already lost its sharpness.

Modern poets are often fond of decorative effects, and there are not so many examples of successful poems built entirely on such a technique as alliteration. What is it - unprofessionalism, lack of musical ear or callousness? You can give different answers to this question, but in any case, alliteration is like a spice. It gives the poem taste and color, makes it lively and native, you want to repeat it and even sing it, but its excess will make the dish excessively spicy, and therefore inedible.

The opposite of alliteration is assonance. This repetition Both of these techniques, of course, coexist perfectly in one work.

Alliteration as a way of organizing a poem

The answer to the question “alliteration - what is it?” will be slightly different when it comes to other languages. In the Russian poetic tradition, although alliteration is the most important means of achieving poetic sound, it still plays an auxiliary role. In some cultures, alliteration is the primary way a poem is constructed. For example, in ancient Germanic, English and Icelandic poetry until the ninth century, alliterative verse was very widely used. It did not have the usual rhyme for us, but at the end of each line there was a clear rhythm, which was set precisely by repetitions of consonant letters. The letters had to be the same before each main stressed syllable (of which there were two) in each line.

Alliteration in Modern English

AT English language alliteration is a more special case than in Russian. We are talking about the repetition of the same sounds only at the beginning of words. For example: Alice's aunt ate apples (Alice's aunt ate apples). This technique is widely used in tongue twisters, political slogans, advertising slogans, song lyrics, and even store names. Answering the question “alliteration - what is it?”, You can give such obvious examples to everyone, such as PayPal or Coca-Cola. Both names are sonorous and easy to remember. And all thanks to the repetition of consonants.

So, in the literature you can find very complex definitions. But everything is quite simple, if you look at a few examples.

To express the author's thought, the image of life in the language, means of artistic expression are used. They serve to create a picture of people's lives, help readers feel and imagine what is depicted with the help of words.

Expressive means convey the author's attitude to the depicted. The main sphere of their use is the language of works of art. In works fiction means of expression are based on special methods of using the word.

These are metaphors and epithets, and synecdoche, simile and personification, which are related to tropes. We offer to figure out what alliteration is, why it is needed, because this technique is quite often used by authors.

In addition to tropes, the means of artistic expression are the methods of sound organization of a literary text in prose and poetry.

At one time, the master of symbolism V. Bryusov wrote: "Believe in the sound of words: the meaning of secrets in them."

The phonetic system of the Russian language is characterized by flexibility with special expressiveness. The meaning of any spoken thought is perceived in the sound composition. Therefore, even the sound of the word acquires a special meaning.

AT artistic speech and writers use the technique of sound recording, in which the sound structure of speech is skillfully organized: words are selected that are similar in sound, these sounds, virtuously combined, resemble the depicted phenomena when voiced.

It is known that in Russian there are much more consonant sounds: 37 consonants against 6 vowel phonemes. It turns out that consonants have the main function in the language to distinguish the meaning of what was said. Sound repetitions of consonants and vowels in any language are used to enhance the expressiveness of oral and written speech.

The Russian language provides ample opportunities for the use of sound writing by authors who create in their native Russian language.

Comparison of alliteration and assonance

The repetition of identical or similar-sounding consonants is called alliteration in the literature. Why is alliteration a common type of sound repetition?

What is alliteration, Wikipedia explains and defines that it is the repetition of identical or homogeneous consonants in a poem, giving it a special sound expressiveness. It was used even in the works of ancient writers: "Pipes are blowing in Novegrad, standing banners in Putivl" ("The Tale of Igor's Campaign").

By repeating the consonants [t] and [s], the expressiveness is enhanced, the unknown author brings anxiety to the reader.

Here are some more examples from The Word...

“On the heels of the flood of filthy Polovtsian placks” - in this passage there are many deaf consonants [n], [t], [k], [sh]. Their repetition conveys in the text a picture of the movement of heavily armed Polovtsy troops.

In another example, “Sharpen your sabers, they themselves jump like gray vltsi.” Whistling consonants [h], [ts] help to clearly imagine fast-jumping warriors.

Examples of alliteration

The Russian system of sounds makes it possible to use alliteration in poetic speech.

Russian poets widely use subtle vibrations of sounds to convey to the reader the meaning of what was said.

Here are the lines with alliteration from Pushkin:

The hiss of foamy glasses

And punch flame blue.

The repetition of the same deaf consonants [n] with hissing [w] gives a picture of glasses with the hiss of champagne, the expressiveness and musical sound of the poetic lines are enhanced.

Take Pushkin's famous poem "Winter Evening". In the line “A storm covers the sky with darkness, whirling snow whirlwinds” is dominated by [g], [h], [c], [p], readers seem to hear the howling of a snow storm on a winter evening, tension is felt with anxiety.

We hear the same sound in "Poltava" by A. Pushkin.

Throwing piles of bodies on a pile, (p, p, p d, d)

Cast iron balls everywhere (w, r, h, f, s)

Between them they jump, smash, (f, p, p, h)

They dig the ashes and hiss in the blood. (p, x, p, t, p, k, p, w)

Explosive [r] dominates here, especially in the first line, in the second line there is an abundance of hissing with dull sounds. In the following lines, hissing ones with a dominant sound [p] are persistently repeated.

The alternation of growling [r] with deaf and hissing recreates a picture of human slaughter, when cannonballs hiss all around, cannonade rumbles from cannons.

Example of alliteration

F. Tyutchev masterfully mastered the sound recording:

The East turned white ... The boat rolled,

The sail sounded fun!

Like an overturned sky

Below us the sky trembled

The East was red… She was praying.

Throwing back the covers with curls ...

In this poem by F. Tyutchev, [l] is repeated, it is about the sky, a boat with a sail. In the sound [l], something gentle is heard, the babble of the waves, the reflection of the trembling sky on the water.

We find the same repetition [l] in another poetic work by Tyutchev, which conveys the summer riot of nature with gentle warm rain:

Lil warm summer rain - its jets

The leaves sounded merry.

In Tyutchev's "Spring Thunderstorm" one can feel how the consonant phonemes "thunder" [g], [p], [b].

Important! Alliteration was widely used in folklore, repetitions of identical consonants can be observed in Russian proverbs and sayings.

Sound writing among the poets of the Silver Age

The phenomenon of alliteration was widely used by poets who worked in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. This artistic technique is easy to find in the works of many authors of this period:

• Bryusov;
• Block;
• Tsvetaeva;
• Balmont.

Poets Silver Age considered poetic language to be magic, a magic spell.

Their poems fascinate with the music of the verse, make one penetrate into the mysterious riddle of the spoken poetic word, although it is not always clear to the reader.

Let's take an excerpt from F. Sologub:

And two deep glasses

Made of scarlet glass

You substituted for the light cup

And sweet lila foam.

Lila, lila, lila, rocked,

Two really scarlet glasses,

Beley lily, alley lala

Bela was you and ala.

Here the poet used the sound repetition of the consonant phoneme [l]. Although the meaning is incomprehensible, it attracts, fascinates, makes you listen. The association on [l] can represent pictures of affection, love, kissing with delicate shades of scarlet and white.

The poets of the Silver Age believed that the main thing in the Russian language and in poetic speech is sound, they tried to enchant the reader with the sound, its melodiousness.

In K. Balmont's poem "Reeds", the repetition of hissing [w] helps to imagine the night rustling and rustling of reeds, a barely audible whisper.

Midnight sometimes in the swamp wilderness

Slightly audible, silently, the reeds rustle.

An example of the repetition of consonants in a poem

Let us recall the lines from M. Tsvetaeva's poem about Blok "the clicking of night hooves." The heroic motive is reinforced by the presence of hissing and explosive in this line, they help the reader to imagine the movement, the clatter of hooves on the pavement.

Immediately in the next line, the combination [gr] continues: “... loud your name thunders…”, which represents the image of the poet - the winner of human souls with his imperious and powerful creativity. The sound [r] is explosive, sharp, imperious, associated with a drum shot, a thunderstorm, a whirlwind.

Here are some creative examples. To reveal the state of mind of the heroine, A. Akhmatova in the poem "My voice is weak" uses sound recording as an expressive means.

The use of voiced consonants [l], [n] with assonance to [e] conveys lightness, calmness, feelings that the heroine experiences after separation from her beloved.

Akhmatova's Song of the Last Evening describes parting on an autumn evening. Usually in autumn there is a feeling of loss before winter frosts, nature seems to fall asleep until next spring. The heroine also says goodbye to her beloved. The use of hissing phonemes conveys the atmosphere of an autumn farewell evening.

There are many examples of alliteration in the work of V. Mayakovsky:

March! So that time

The nuclei burst.

To the old days

So that the wind

related

Just a tangle of hair.

The alliteration in this passage on [r] allows the reader to imagine the chased rhythm of the march, the dynamics of the revolutionary struggle.

“Horror squeezed a groan out of iron…”: with a special set of consonants, the poet V. Mayakovsky conveys the horror of the loss of the great leader of the revolution, V. Lenin. This is what alliteration means for Mayakovsky.

Sound writing in prose

Sound repetitions as a means of expression are also used in prose works.

“In the early morning of the fourteenth day of the spring month of Nisan, in a white cloak with a bloody lining, shuffling with a cavalry gait, the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate, entered the covered colonnade between the two wings of the palace of Herod the Great.”

These are lines from Bulgakov's famous novel. Here the reader hears the rhythm of the procurator's majestic gait, the echo of his shuffling steps resounding in the hall with a high colonnade.

The combination of voiced consonants with voiceless consonants enhances the expressiveness of the description. The sound [r] is repeated 14 times, the sound is sharp, explosive, conveying authority, anxiety and tension. Even in the name, the author used an alliteration with [p] - Procurator Pontius Pilate.

In the works of modern poets, you can find sound repetitions to enhance expressiveness:

The rain was falling softly, in a sing-song voice,

Watering the yard and the roof of the house ...

In this passage by S. Marshak, with the help of sound painting, a picture of nature is drawn during rain. The repetition of voiced consonants hissing in combination clearly recreates the sound of rain pouring on the roof of a house.

We read the "Reserve" by V. Vysotsky:

How many of them are in bushes - so many of them are in thickets,

The roar of the roaring, the roar of the roaring,

How many running - so many lying

In the wilds and bushes, in groves and thickets ...

From the excerpt of the poem, it can be seen that it is permeated with the repetition of hissing consonants, expressiveness is enhanced, and a terrible picture of the extermination of animals is created.

Useful video

Summing up

Man lives in a world of different sounds. They affect a person, causing associations with images. The sound writing and phonetic organization of words must be inextricably linked with the content. poetic work, only then the poem will sparkle with vivid pictorialism.

Good morning! These “br” and “tr” in the greeting somehow cheered me up. Irina Ivaskiv is with you. Cool associations are sometimes caused by accumulations of certain letters. Each sound contains some kind of encrypted information of its own: some sounds cause alertness inside, others - lulling mantras, and others - form vivid images in our imagination. K. Balmont called the sounds "little magic gnomes". So writers and poets “conjure” their works, choosing various phonetic devices in order to awaken our imagination. We will talk about one of them in this article. So, alliteration... What is it? How and why is it applied? Why so popular? How is alliteration used in advertising and business?

Alliteration: What is this?

Alliteration is the repetition of consonants to create an image. The concept is translated from Latin as "letter". This phenomenon, when some consonant letter is often repeated in a certain part of the text, is called alliteration. Either the same consonant is repeated, or 2-3 similar consonants alternate (hissing, whistling, growling).

Alliteration is used:

• in tongue twisters ( To at P and to and P at P and to )
• in proverbs and sayings M e l i, E m e l me, your week l I)
• in prose and poetry, and even in advertising

How does alliteration draw images?

Alliteration is a kind of “tautology” of consonants. But why repeat them? To repeat, to create images. To, in other words:

• reeds rustled:

• trumpets blew:

• Neva "boiled":

• crunchy puddles:

• hooves rumbled:

• thundered the elements:

• swept into the whirlpool:

• the rhythm of the march was minted:

• nostalgia kicked in:

• wagon wheels rattled:

• the royal feast continued:

• people marched to the rhythm:

• a bizarre dream wafted:

• memories rushed through my head:

• heart sank with empathy:

• goosebumps ran from the explosion:

• German bombers roared over besieged Leningrad:

Apparent consonant dominance

Alliteration is not a linguistic innovation. This is one of the oldest phonetic techniques that can be found in every language! Alliteration was used by Homer, Horace, Virgil, Dante, Petrarch, Ronsard, Shakespeare, Pushkin, Tyutchev, Nekrasov and many others.

Such frequent recourse to the combination of selective consonants can be explained by their special dominance. Consonants dominate over vowels. And not because there are many more of them. Let's take a few words as an example and write them down using only vowels: eoo, eai, eoo. It is unlikely that anyone will guess what these words are. But if the same words are written using only consonants, then in the words it will already be possible to recognize famous poets: lrmntv, drzhvn, shvchnk.

Consonants with more weight can create incredibly powerful images! Voiced and deaf, hard and soft, loud and philosophical, irritating and caressing the ear - consonants have become excellent tools for creating a strong phonetic impression in the hands of writing people.

Examples of alliteration in prose

See how the writer describes Taras’s condition with a combination of anxious “t-r” and sleepy-tired “s”:

Taras did not stop worrying, despite the soothing crackle of the fire.

And in this example, the repetition of the consonants "t" and "p" creates a completely different depressed atmosphere:

Potapov trampled on the pedestal: “But shouldn’t I go to rest?”

Another vivid example from V. Nabokov's story "The Word". The accumulation of the consonant "g", which at first dampens vigilance, standing next to the musically tender "l", and then reminds of its formidable dimensions, intensifying with the consonant "r":

I felt, without looking, the gloss, the angles and the edges of the huge mosaic rocks.

Alliteration in folklore

What do you imagine when you hear the saying "From the pot two inches"? Am I the only one who hears the baby lisping?))) And here is another proverb with the same hissing consonant sound: “You can’t hide an awl in a bag,” and here you can already hear how this same awl rustles in a bag. And here is the third one: “You go quieter - you will continue”, and here something was pulled into a dream from such a snail's speed. And here is the fourth Lermontov line: “Our ears are on top!”, and here the hissing sound gives a complete feeling of nix.))) Just as composers compose thousands of songs from the same seven notes, so the writer’s skill draws different letters from the same letters paintings.

Alliteration in tongue twisters

In tongue twisters, a pile of hard-to-pronounce letter combinations train diction. The famous "tacking ships" or "Karl who stole corals" is nothing but alliteration.

Alliteration in advertising and business

The accumulation of repetitive consonants attracts attention, is easily perceived and remembered for a long time. That's why advertisers have seized on this unique expressive technique with which to shape the brand and consumer demand. They, in fact, put the alliteration on ... a commercial basis.)))

Alliteration began to be used:

• in company names and trademarks : chocolate "Kitkat", cat food "Kiteket", lollipops "Chupa Chups", sweets "Minky-Binky"
• in advertising slogans: Your pussy would buy Whiskas; Vella. You are wonderful; Dentistry. Take care of your teeth and deshtva; Furniture. Bedrooms for big and small; Sam Samych. Dumplings without haste; "Mezim" is indispensable for the stomach

Phonetic harmony in an advertisement is worth a lot. When the essence of an advertising message is formulated phonetically correctly, the message subconsciously "falls" on the heart. The phonetics of the advertising message will skillfully direct the thoughts of buyers in the right direction. Listen:

• toothbrush "Aquafresh": cleans with shine (the sounds "h", "st", "ts", "sk" resemble the sounds of brushing your teeth)
• drink "Mirinda": an explosion of taste (the sounds "vzr" and "vvk" resemble a escaping carbonated drink)
• bouillon cubes Knorr: Knorr - delicious and korr (the sound "r" creates a sense of speed: rrraz - and the broth is ready)
• taxi: Fast delivery AND taxi driver with change (sounds “st”, “ks”, “st”, “sd” - the taxi is already standing and the meter is ticking)

The consonants included in the slogan, consonant with the brand, create a semblance of “memory knots”: you pull on them and you can easily restore the name of the product before your eyes (sometimes incomprehensible and difficult to read). And the last thing: avoid letter combinations in your texts where there are more than 3 consonants in a row (usually a large number of consonants found at the junctions of words): quality stv pr product.

Word games: child's play or serious brain training?