What is an alliteration (and what isn't)?

Recently, there has been some conflicting opinions on Added Alliterative Appeal over the exact definition of alliteration. We all have probably heard at some point that alliteration is "words beginning with the same sound", but this definition is insufficient in several respects. To wit:

1. There is much disagreement over what constitutes alliteration in vowels. The same letter does not always mean the same sound, and what's more, there are different ways to pronounce the same word according to regional dialect or personal preference. On the other hand, the rules of traditional alliterative verse consider any two vowels as mutually alliterative.
2. How are consonant combinations to be treated? Again, in alliterative verse 's', 'sp' and 'st' are not considered mutually alliterative, but to my knowledge there is no such restriction on other consonant combinations. But today one troper has argued that 'T' and 'Tr' (as in Tech Tree) are not alliterative.
3. This hasn't even been brought up until now, but it's usually a requirement of alliteration that the alliterating sounds are part of stressed syllables. So, under that premise (to take the obvious example) "Added Alliterative Appeal" is not alliterative, since the stressed syllables do not begin with the same sound: Added Alliterative Appeal. A casual glance at Added Alliterative Appeal suggests most tropers do not care about stresses and regard any trope name with two or more words starting with the same sound as alliterative. If you consider stresses, many trope names that now are on the list will fall off; and I expect some who are not here would go on the list, since alliteration can also happen within words, provided the syllables are stressed.

Is there any troper who has a clear grasp of the matter and can tell us what constitutes alliteration and what doesn't, specifially in regard to the three cases mentioned above? The Other Wiki doesn't really give definite answers. Or if there is no hard, universally accepted definition of alliteration, then we should just decide on a working definition for use on the wiki (or at least on Added Alliterative Appeal). As an aside, this is also relevant for the Alliteration YKTTW that's gathering dust.

edited 24th Aug '13 11:35:49 AM by LordGro

Almost all actual alliteration is by the first letter of each word. If you look at the Added Alliterative Appeal, all of the trope names work this way, including names like Spent Shells Shower and Vile Villain, Saccharine Show, even though 's' and 'sh' are different sounds. The Uncyclopedia article for Alliteration mixes four different sounds (in my accent) for 'a': absolute approaches aided aesthetic. Or six sounds, if 'al' and 'ar' count.

Alliteration by sound, as in 'killing contest', is valid alliteration, but is less common.

First, alliteration developed as an oral and rhetorical figure, and at different times and places. That means that what can be considered a "good" alliteration in one context might not be one in another context.

(This does not mean that you can't use alliteration in print, but it will be different, since it will have the mediating medium of the alphabet between the concept and the sounds.)

Going by the "rules" for alliteration that I know best, those used in Nordic verse in the 8th to 13th centuries, here are some things to consider, but they are rules that apply to that time and place, and not necessarily to other times and places:

• Alliteration is based on the first stressed syllable, though this was often the first one in the word in Old Norse
• Consonants rhymed based primarily on sound; eg tall and thunder wouldn't rhyme
• All vowels rhymed with each other, but it was considered most beautiful if different vowel sounds were used
• And perhaps most confusingly, some words were considered to alliterate based on an older form of the word, before a linguistic shift!

Taking the most famous verse of Völuspá we get the following:

Ár var alda, þar er ekki var, var-a sandr né sær né svalar unnir; jörð fannsk æva né upphiminn, gap var ginnunga en gras hvergi.

You get a stressed Á - a - e - e pattern in the first two rows, then s - s - s in the next two. I believe jörð had had a linguistic shift, and when the rules were first starting to appear was more pronounced like the English earth, so you get a ö - æ - u pattern in the third, and then g - g - g in the last (and note that all the three "g" there are hard, not soft, otherwise I doubt they would rhyme).

The most famous linguistic shift that influenced alliteration was probably for Odin, Vili, and Vé. Their names were considered to alliterate, based on the older forms of Woden, Wili, Wé. So Snorri, who lived 600 or so years later and pronounced the names differently, still considered the three brothers to have an alliterative name.

In short, it's like rhyming, but not at the end of the words. Can be based on letters or sounds, and more or less loose. It's really all about repeating patterns. I wouldn't count s as being alliterative with sh, though, as they're both used as singular and different entities.

edited 4th Nov '13 5:36:02 PM by AnotherDuck

As stated, Alliteration can be about sound or letter.

Soft Shell Cereal is an alliteration, for example, despite that it fits NEITHER. None of the three words have the same lettering, nor the same sound (aside from "S" and "Ce" being close).

I've been under the impression that matching the letter is alliteration but matching the sound is assonance.

Assonance is similarity (or a pattern) in wovel sounds. It and its counterpart consonance might be in the beginning or in the middle of words.

Alliteration is assonance or consonance specifically in the beginning of words (or depending on tradition on the first stressed syllable in the word, if it's not the first).

"Assonance" is Insistent Terminology: some sources require alliteration to use consonants, not vowels. Repeating vowels are assonance, not alliteration. Uncyclopedia uttered, "Arguably, alliterative A's are assonant and aren't actually authentic."

I allow both consonants and vowels in alliteration, because some works do both, and trope pages like Alliterative Title list both.