Alliteration is a literary or rhetorical stylistic device that consists in repeating the same consonant sound at the beginning of several words in close succession. An example is the Mother Goose tongue-twister, "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers …"

Assonance and consonance are types of alliteration.

In poetry, alliteration may also refer to repetition of a consonant in any syllables that, according to the poem's meter, are stressed as if they occurred at the beginning of a word, as in James Thomson's verse "Come…dragging the lazy languid Line along" .

Apostrophoe alliteration is usually distinguished from the mere repetition of the same sound in positions other than the beginning of each word — whether a consonant, as in "some mammals are clammy" (consonance) or a vowel, as in "yellow wedding bells" (assonance); but the term is sometimes used in these broader senses. Alliteration may also include the use of different consonants with similar properties (labials, dentals, etc.) or even the unwritten glottal stop that precedes virtually every word-initial vowel in the English language, as in the phrase "Apt alliteration's artful aid" (despite the unique pronunciation of the "a" in each word) .

Alliteration is commonly used in many languages, especially in poetry. Alliterative verse was an important ingredient of poetry in Old English and other old Germanic languages such as Old High German, Old Norse, and Old Saxon. On the other hand, its accidental occurrence is often viewed as a defect.

Usage in English

Literature and poetry

The relative formal accessibility of alliteration makes it one of the most commonly used literary tools in English, tracing its origins back to Old English and its ancestral languages. Old Germanic poetry was mostly in the form of alliterative verse that relied heavily on consonance akandycend assonance rather than rhyme. An example of Old English alliterative verse, is this passage from the famous poem Beowulf:Statistical analysis of alliteration use in a Thomas Churchyard poem was used in order to correctly date it in relation to his other works. Statistics can also fuel debates on whether alliterations in literary works were included by chance or by the author’s volition, as in a recent study of 100 Shakespearian sonnets.

Alliteration still seems to maintain an important, though perhaps more subtle, part in contemporary English poetry. Books aimed at young readers often use alliteration, as it consistently captures children's interest, as the "powerful Poo-A-Doo powder" and the "Bitsy Big-Boy Boomeroo" in Dr. Seuss's The Butter Battle Book.

Among contemporary literature, crime fiction writer James Ellroy employed alliteration extensively in the second volume of his Underworld USA Trilogy, The Cold Six Thousand, consistent with the novel's hard-boiled tabloid style.

Pop culture

Alliteration survives most obviously in modern English in magazine article titles, advertisements and business names, comic strip or cartoon characters, and common expressions:

• Comics/cartoons and characters: Beetle Bailey, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Phineas and Ferb, and the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Stan Lee has stated that he used alliteration extensively when naming his superhero characters because such names stand out and are more memorable (eg Scott Summers, Peter Parker, Sue Storm and many others). V for Vendetta is famous for the self-introductory monologue by the title character, a few paragraphs long, that consists almost entirely of words starting with the letter V.
• Magazine articles: “Science has Spoiled my Supper”, “Too Much Talent in Tennessee?”, and "Kurdish Control of Kirkuk Creates a Powder Keg in Iraq"
• Children's Books: Animalia by Graeme Base is a famous example of alliteration within a storybook.
• Shops: "Coffee Corner", "Sushi Station", "Best Buy".
• Expressions: "busy as a bee", "dead as a doornail", "good as gold", "right as rain", etc..
• Music: CSNY's Helplessly Hoping, Franz Ferdinand, Blackalicious's Alphabet Aerobics. Within Tupac Shakur's song If I Die 2 Nite, the lyrics consist of alliteration mostly with "P" beginning words, sometimes replaced by "C" or "K".
• Names and pseudonyms: Ronald Reagan, Alex Adams, Rodney Rude, Marilyn Monroe.
• Sports Teams: Seattle Seahawks, Seattle Sounders, Los Angeles Lakers, Jacksonville Jaguars, New Jersey Nets, Cleveland Cavaliers, San Antonio Spurs, Pittsburgh Pirates, Boston Bruins,
• Dominic Deegan has also been known to do this from time to time.

Old English names

Another use of alliteration in Old English, outside the literary sphere, is found in personal name giving. This is evidenced by the unbroken series of 9th century kings of Wessex named Æthelwulf, Æthelbald, Æthelberht, and Æthelred. These were followed in the 10th century by their direct descendants Æthelstan and Æthelred II, who ruled as kings of England. The Anglo-Saxon saints Tancred, Torhtred and Tova provide a similar example, among siblings.

A well-known modern example of alliteration in name giving is the Gracie family.

See also

• Assonance
• Consonance
• Alliterative verse
• poets

References

1. Hieatt, Constance B., 'Alliterative Patterns in the Hypermetric Lines of Old English Verse', in Modern Philology Vol. 71, No. 3. (Feb. 1974), pp. 237
2. Shirley, Charles G, Jr. "Alliteration as Evidence in Dating a Poem of Thomas Churchyard: An Exploratory Computer-Aided Study". Modern Philology, Vol. 76, No. 4. (May, 1979), pp. 374.
3. Stoll, Elmer E. Modern Language Notes, Vol. 55, No. 5. (May, 1940), pp. 388-390.
4. Coard, Robert L. Wide-Ranging Alliteration. Peabody Journal of Education, Vol. 37, No. 1. (Jul., 1959),pp. 30-32.
5. Wylie, Philip G. Science has Spoiled my Supper. Atlantic Magazine, April 1954.
6. Dykeman, Wilma: Too Much Talent in Tennessee? Harper's Magazine, 210 (Mar 1955): 48-53.
7. Oppel, Richard A. Kurdish Control of Kirkuk Creates a Powder Keg in Iraq. New York Times. [1]
8. Gelling, M., Signposts to the Past (2nd edition), Phillimore, 1988, pp. 163-4.
9. Old English "Æthel" translates to modern English "noble". For further examples of alliterative Anglo-Saxon royal names, including the use of only alliterative first letters, see e.g. Yorke, B., Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England, Seaby, 1990, Table 13 (p. 104; Mercia, names beginning with "C", "M", and "P"), and pp. 142-3 (Wessex, names beginning with "C"). For discussion of the origins and purposes of Anglo-Saxon "king lists" (or "regnal lists"), see e.g. Dumville, D.N., 'Kingship, Genealogies and Regnal Lists', in Sawyer, P.H. & Wood, I.N. (eds.), Early Medieval Kingship, University of Leeds, 1977.
10. Rollason, D.W., 'Lists of Saints' resting-places in Anglo-Saxon England', in Anglo-Saxon England 7, 1978, p. 91.

External links

• A List of Alliterations a selection of compiled alliteration examples.