What is Alliteration?

What Does Alliteration Mean

We explain what an alliteration is in literature, in what other areas it is used and examples. Also, what is onomatopoeia.

In addition to literature, alliteration is used in verses, rhymes, and everyday speech.

What is alliteration?

Alliteration is a literary figure that consists of the repetition or reiteration of certain sounds within the written text , in order to obtain greater expressiveness or sound impact.

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It is a figure not subject to metric norms, which uses different sound strategies depending on the language in question. For example, among classical Latin cultists, the composition of phrases and verses whose words all began with the same letter was popular.

Alliteration is almost exclusive to literary language, but it can be found in popular verses, nursery rhymes and even in certain twists of everyday language . But their ability to draw the speaker's attention to the very sounds they are making is characteristic.

See also: Literary resources

Examples of alliteration

Some examples of alliteration are as follows:

  • " M i m amá m e m ima" (nursery rhyme).
  • " Tr is tr istes t igreS tr agan tr igo on a tr igal" (popular tongue twister).
  • " Sun or in the sun age of the sun itary s ur of the ocean " (in "Poem IX" by Pablo Neruda).
  • "Under the to the to you see d the he sees fan" (in " It was a soft air ..." Ruben Dario).
  • “ A las ala da s al ma de las rosas” (in “Elegía” by Miguel Hernández).

Alliteration and onomatopoeia

Just as alliteration pays attention to the sounds of language, onomatopoeia instead use language to try to reproduce the sounds of reality . So an onomatopoeia will be a way of making language "say" the sounds of things, such as:

  • "Tick-tock", the hands of the clock.
  • "Meow", the cat's meow.
  • "Wow", the barking of the dog.
  • "Pum", the shot of the revolver.
  • "Cataplún", the cannon shot.
  • "Pío", the chick chirp.
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