Alliteration is a figure of speech, more precisely a sound figure (or harmony).
It is defined by the repetition of consonant phonemes in an utterance. This means that these sounds can be similar or the same and are usually located at the beginning or in the middle of the word.
Alliteration produces an interesting sound effect, setting the pace and suggesting some sounds similar to the words that make up the text.
Thus, alliteration is a linguistic resource widely used in poetic texts to emphasize a certain sound, offering greater expressiveness to the text.
In addition to alliteration, the most important sound figures are: assonance, paronomasia and onomatopoeia.
Alliteration and Assonance
It is very common for there to be confusion between the two sound figures: alliteration and assonance. But they have differences.
While alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds (consonants), assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds (vowels).
Examples:
- Alliteration: “Chhello teagrape, teaove without stopping” (Jorge Ben Jor): repetition of the consonants “ch”.
- Assonance: "This disproportionate passionto the, it's madnessto the” (Djavan): repetition of the vowels “ão”.
It is interesting to note that they can be used in the same statement, for example:
"Berror by the aterror, for the desterror/Berror for your berror, by your error/ I want you to win, I want you to catch me / I'm your bezerror screaming mom." (Caetano Veloso)
In the example above we have both the assonance of the vowels “e”, and the alliteration caused by the sound effects of the consonants “rr”.
Examples of Alliteration
Check below some excerpts that use alliteration.
- “Voz veladas, velusive voz,/Volupies of vyolons, voz velated/Vagam us veyes vortices velose/Dos vthen, vives, vat, vulcanized." (Cruz e Souza) – repetition of the consonant “v”.
- “Levto you the vthen to voz, that the vthen lie down." (Luís de Camões) – repetition of the consonant “v”.
- "O ract roi the rcare of the rhey of ROman." (popular proverb) – repetition of the consonant “r”.
- "Who with ferror fere with ferror will be ferotic." (popular proverb) – repetition of the consonant “f”.
- "O sabya no sknew the sgreedy sknew the sabya no sopen the doorssobier." (popular proverb) – repetition of the consonant “s”.
Learn more about the topic by reading the articles:
- Figures of Language
- Thought Figures
- Word Pictures
- Syntax figures
- Sound Figures