Consider what alliteration is. Alliteration

Alliteration (from lat. al - with, to and littera - letter). Speaking of alliteration, we often forget that the language has many words and few sounds. In Sweden, they even resorted to using a computer that, if there are two identical letters in a poetic line, lights up an alliteration signal. Say any phrase. The simplest. And it will definitely meet the same sounds, but this is not yet evidence of alliteration. Indeed, we do not notice many of the repetitions, because they create a sound background that is usual for our hearing. But alliteration is audible repetitions of consonant sounds of speech, serving as one of the stylistic means of aesthetic expressiveness. It is inherent mainly in artistic speech (and is often distinguishable in it). But not only. So, it was brilliantly used by famous lawyers and orators. Do not neglect it and the authors of articles, reviews, notes. When K. Vanshenkin writes: "There are poets who fall under someone else's intonation - like under a train," we notice that successful consonances give the phrase a touch of an easily remembered aphorism. This feature of alliteration is perfectly realized in proverbs, sayings, riddles. “Old age is not joy, and death is not self-interest.”

Alliteration has been in the arsenal of means of fiction since ancient times, and it has always been comprehended more by means of poetic than prose speech. The saturation of prose with consonances is regarded as an abuse and is most often manifested by representatives of literary movements that professed a cult of form. With emotional statements, alliteration in prose is undoubtedly appropriate: “Man is created for happiness, like a bird for flight” (V. Korolenko).

In poetry, alliteration, like any other means artistic expressiveness, is its hidden, internal lever, a secret bell, which can also stun if it gets carried away excessively. Once in the collection of poets K. Balmont read his poems:

Shore, storm, beats on the shore
Alien to charms black shuttle...

As I. Bunin recalls, in dead silence, instead of enthusiasm, only the question was asked: “What kind of boat is this and what kind of charms is it alien to?” It is curious that the poetic phraseology of that time knew many verbal images symbolizing freedom from worldly things, death. The same Bunin in the magnificent poem "The Shore" used his euphemism to designate the coffin - "white boat", which, of course, was also indifferent to the charm of life. The "Black Boat" is no better or worse, but alliteration in itself sank it.

There is an opinion that alliteration sets off only the most important words. It is not always so. In poetic speech, each word tends to consonance:

Electric train wires were drawn
Weightless cubes in the sky.
(D. Samoilov)

However, the requirement is legitimate. “I,” Mayakovsky shared his experience, “I resort to alliteration for framing, for even greater emphasis on a word that is important to me.”
In such cases, poets achieve impressive expressiveness:

I love your pale face, sad Selena,
Your hopeless gaze that accompanies me...

This Bunin alliteration for "l" creates, as it were, musical italics of the most emotionally colored word - Selena, which is immediately emphasized by the adjacent line, in which this sound is absent.
With the help of alliteration, it is impossible to express other feelings and thoughts, in addition to those that are expressed verbally, but thanks to it, we perceive words more acutely.

Throwing up a rainbow right away
Reducing the heat of the sun
Friendly rain behind the car
Three versts ran... —

we read in Tvardovsky's, and it seems to us that we hear the sound of rain and the rustle of tires.

Alliteration links words in a verse or in adjacent verses, less often in a stanza, and in some cases in the whole poem, stylistically cementing it into a monolith of feelings and thoughts:

The entire poem by N. Zabolotsky is permeated with repetitions of "l", "r", "b" and other bizarre combinations of sounds. Subordinate to the high skill of the poet, they give rise to quite definite associations in us, emphasizing the feeling of quiet, tender love for native land. In the lines about the sweet soul of the poet, Moscow nature, which is “more modest and simpler” than the magnificent nature of Adzharia, the alliteration is also “more modest and simpler”, without the violent, frantic sounds of the surf and the copper roar of pipes and timpani.

There are no rules for alliteration because it is art. And so they treat him very jealously. Observations by L. I. Timofeev (see: Questions of Literature. 1977. No. 6) on versions of poems by Pushkin, Blok and Mayakovsky showed that in one of five cases the poets replaced words in search of the most euphonious option, but ... but this was done not to the detriment of the vital truth of the word, which was above all for them and led, if necessary, to the rejection of alliteration.

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 of fiction, the 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.

In artistic speech, writers also 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, masterfully 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.

Russian language provides wide 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 [p] 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 “The storm covers the sky with darkness, twisting snow whirlwinds” 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, F. Tyutchev repeats [l], we are talking 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: “... big name yours thunders…”, which represents the image of the poet - the winner human souls with its powerful 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.

In "The Song of the Last Evening" Akhmatova describes the parting in autumn evening. Usually in the autumn there is a feeling of loss before the winter frosts, nature seems to fall asleep until the 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

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 works contemporary 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 of the poetic work, only then the poem will sparkle with vivid figurativeness.

Alliteration is repetition of consonants or a set of consonant sounds, which gives a special sound expressiveness and figurativeness to artistic speech, mainly a poem; the main element of phonics.

With alliteration, the frequency of consonant sounds in a particular passage or in the entire composition is greater in comparison with the average language, for example: “We grow up to a hundred years without old age ...” (V. V. Mayakovsky, poem “Good!”, 1927).

Use of alliteration in poetry

Alliteration in versification is used as an original stylistic means of increasing the phonetic expressiveness of speech. The genius of rhyme and the author of unique poetic forms V. V. Mayakovsky wrote: “I resort to alliteration for framing, for even greater emphasis on an important word for me.”

Literature of all periods and countries of the world is rich in alliterations. Intentional consonance of consonants is present in the poems of legendary ancient authors, in particular Homer, Hesiod, Horace, Virgil, as well as in the works of many great European poets - D. Alighieri, F. Petrarch, P. de Ronsard, W. Shakespeare.

Alliteration is also widely used in folk poetry. Many sayings, including proverbs, sayings, tongue twisters, often contain alliterations: “You go slower - you will continue”, “Meli, Emelya, your week”, “Buy a pile of peaks”, etc.

Alliteration in Russian poetry

Alliteration in Russian poetry, in contrast to German, English, Finnish, Turkic versification, where it is the main technique, is used by the authors, to the best of their artistic manner, very restrainedly. Poems built on alliteration first appeared in Russia in the 18th century as a creative experiment of the famous Russian poet and scientist M.V. Lomonosov. The alliterative tradition was continued by the great Russian masters of the word G. V. Derzhavin, A. P. Sumarokov, A. S. Pushkin, N. A. Nekrasov and others.

Alliteration reached its highest apogee in the era of symbolism, whose poets strove for the phonic figurativeness of artistic speech. Outstanding representatives cultivation of alliteration in Russian literature are K. D. Balmont, Igor Severyanin, Velimir Khlebnikov and others.

A special poetic effect of the poem is achieved by combining alliteration with repetitions of vowel sounds - assonances. Such consonances were subtly, exquisitely used by the classic of Russian literature A. S. Pushkin, as, for example, in the poem "Autumn" (1833):
Sad time! oh charm!
Your farewell beauty is pleasant to me ...

The word alliteration comes from medieval lat. alleratio, which means “consonance” in translation.

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.

Already in the "Tale of Igor's Campaign" this technique is found:
"The trumpets are blowing in Novegrad, the banners are standing in Putivl ...".
But N. Nekrasov describes the Volga:
"Volga, Volga, spring full of water...".
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.
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 ... ".
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.

(from lat. ad - to, with, with and littera - letter)

I. Alliteration is a consonance formed by the repetition of identical consonants in initial words verse.
That is, alliteration is the initial rhyme that was used in alliterative versification. The alliterative verse is supplanted by the verse with the final rhyme.

In this sense, alliteration is not found on the exam in the Russian language and literature. But there is no harm in his knowledge.

II. Alliteration is a euphonic technique of repeating the same consonant sounds, which enhances the expressiveness of artistic speech.

Rhyming consonances are not included in alliteration.
Alliteration, just like poetic work perceived by the ear, not by sight. Chukovsky, referring to the words of Blok, said that the poet began to write “The Twelve” from the line: “I’ll strip, strip with a knife!” Chukovsky, who was engaged in journalism, gave this news to the surface not in hot pursuit, but after a long time, after the death of the poet. Blok, who had excellent hearing, could not say such nonsense. In the above line, not two, but one sound "g" in the word "knife". In "already" the letter "zh" is written, and the sound "sh" is pronounced.

Our proverbs and sayings are rich in alliteration:
Shchi and porridge - our food
Meli, Emelya, your week
I would be glad to heaven, but sins are not allowed
Still waters run deep
The wolf took pity on the mare, left the tail and mane
From the pot two inches
Murder will out
Gruzdev called himself get in the body
Easier than a steamed turnip
Across the sea, a heifer is a half, but a ruble is transported

Alliterations are already found in the Tale of Igor's Campaign:

Trumpets sound in Novegrad, banners stand in Putivl...
With advance in the heel of the trample, the filthy Polovtsian placks ...

All the above examples testify to expressiveness, obligation and alliteration.
Alliteration often serves as an onomatopoeia. This is the simplest application of it:

Echoes echo through the mountains
Like thunder rolling on thunders.

With the sound combination "gr" Derzhavin recreated, in his opinion, the formidable rumble of the wild elements. In this case, agreeing with the poet, it must be emphasized that even in onomatopoeic verses one cannot attach any semantic meaning to sounds:

The hiss of foamy glasses
And punch flame blue.

About these lines of Pushkin, T. Skorenko notes: “Here we hear the rustle of dresses and the hiss of punch due to the repetition of two consonants "p" and "sh"". To the rustling of dresses, one can add, for example, the rustling of a fern, the hiss of a python, the noise of trains, the whisper of girlfriends, and finally, the rustle of confused convolutions, past which reality itself slipped, which cries out: “And what do the ladies do where the punch is pouring, that is, on bachelor party"? After all, just a verse above, Pushkin wrote about the "hour of a bachelor party." No, T. Skorenko must be brought to the bachelor party and the ladies, because "punch" and "dress" begin with the letter "p", and even such a "meaningful" idea is attributed to Pushkin.
Any property of a word attributed to sound is an expression of pure subjectivity. For example, Derzhavin considered the sound "p" unsuitable for "expressing the most tender feelings." He wrote ten love poems that do not contain words with this sound. And all these ten poems are done, lifeless. And to everyone who agrees with Derzhavin that such words as Russia, motherland, dear are not suitable for “expressing the most tender feelings”?! ..
There are no and cannot be dissonant sounds in native speech. All of them are wonderful. And the fact that alliteration on l, m, n, r is more common than others is because they are the most sonorous of consonant sounds.
Alliteration, acting as a kind of italics, can emphasize the author's idea:

Russia cannot be understood with the mind,
Do not measure with a common yardstick;
She has a special become -
One can only believe in Russia.

In Russian speech, the most frequent of the consonant sounds is "s". In Tyutchev's text, it occurs four times in the repeated, main, word "Russia" and once in the words "special" and "become". In other words, this very common sound is not present. But after all, “Russia is becoming special” is the very idea for which the quatrain was written.
Alliteration is especially expressive when conveying deep feelings and strong excitement. In these cases, alliteration is not just an ornament that contributes to the euphony of poetic speech, but sets off the most essential in it:

I don't expect anything from life
And I do not feel sorry for the past at all ...
Lermontov

There is a tired tenderness in Russian nature,
The silent pain of hidden sadness
Hopelessness of grief, voicelessness, boundlessness,
Cold heights, leaving gave.
Balmont

And the spirits sighed, eyelashes dozed off,
Silk whispered anxiously.
Block

Alliteration like any literary device, is a double-edged weapon. Inappropriate and intrusive alliteration can spoil the impression of poetry even for the most complacent lover of poetry.

Allegory how a literary term is interpreted in dictionaries inconsistently and not exactly, which is largely due to the use of this word in different areas reality.
In the ordinary sense, an allegory is a material representation of an immaterial concept. For example, the allegories of the prophet Isaiah: sword (war), plowshare (peace).

Anaphora is stylistic figure, which is based on the repetition of any speech phenomenon. But unlike other types of repetition, such as epiphora, anaphora, as its name implies, refers to the repetition of the initial parts of the speech flow (sounds, words, phrases, verses, stanzas, rhythmic and syntactic constructions, intonation).

Textbooks on rhetoric (especially the old ones) distinguish many varieties of anaphora. However, not all types of anaphora serve eloquence. Some of them are of a random nature (behind the fence), others are not so much eloquence, but rather its antithesis - rhetoric.

Antithesis is a stylistic figure that connects contrasting concepts (light - darkness, love - hate, god - devil).
It lies at the basis of dialectics. Antithesis, using directly polar opposite phenomena, leads them to unity through the subordination of these opposites to each other.