Holorime
Holorime[1] (or holorhyme[2]) is a form of rhyme where two very similar sequence of sounds can form phrases composed of different words and with different meanings. For example, in some non-rhotic British English dialects, the following lines are pronounced identically:
/ɪˈnɜːrʃəhɪˈlɛəriəzəˈkruːzɛlæs/
- —Miles Kington, "A Lowlands Holiday Ends in Enjoyable Inactivity".
Holorime pairs may also be referred to as oronyms.[3]
In French[]
In French poetry, rime richissime ("very rich rhyme") is a rhyme of more than three phonemes. A holorime is an extreme example. For example (Marc Monnier):
- Gall, amant de la Reine, alla, tour magnanime ! (Gallus, the Queen's lover, went – a magnanimous gesture! –)
- Galamment de l'Arène à la Tour Magne, à Nîmes. (Gallantly from the Arena to the Great Tower, at Nîmes.)"
- pronounced [ɡa.la.mɑ̃.d(ə.)la.ʁɛ(ː).na.la.tuʁ.ma.ɲa.nim]
Another notable French exponent of the holorime was Alphonse Allais:
- Par les bois du djinn, où s'entasse de l'effroi, (By the woods of the djinn, where fear abounds,)
- Parle et bois du gin, ou cent tasses de lait froid. (Talk and drink gin, or a hundred cups of cold milk.)
- pronounced [paʁ.le.bwa.dy.dʒi.nu.sɑ̃.tas.d(ə.)lɛ.fʁwa]
French lends itself to humorous wordplay because of its large number of heterographic homophones:
- Ma mère est maire de Mamers, et mon frère est masseur. (My mother is the mayor of Mamers, and my brother is a masseur.)
- Ma mère est mère de ma mère, et mon frère est ma sœur. (My mother is my mother's mother, and my brother is my sister.)
- pronounced [ma mɛʁ ɛ mɛ(ː)ʁ də ma.mɛʁ e mɔ̃ fʁɛʁ ɛ ma.sœʁ]
- Lundi et mardi, mercredi, jeudi, vendredimanche, samedi (Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Frisunday, Saturday.)
- L'un dit, et m'a redit mercredi, « Je dis, vendre dix manches, ça me dit ! » (Someone said, and repeated it to me on Wednesday, "I say, selling ten sleeves, I'd like that!")
- pronounced [lœ̃.di.e.maʁ.di.mɛʁ.kʁə.di.ʒø.di vɑ̃.dʁə.di.mɑ̃ʃ.sam.di]
In Japanese[]
A type of holorime where the meaning changes based on where word boundaries are placed in the phrase is known as ginatayomi (ぎなた読み) in Japanese. The word itself is a ginatayomi, since it arises from a misreading:[4]
- Benkei ga, naginata wo motte 弁慶が、長刀を持って (Benkei, take the naginata)
- Benkei gana, ginata wo motte 弁慶がな、ぎなたを持って (Oi Benkei, take the ginata)
These words are consequently also known as Benkei-yomi. Another famous example:[5]
- Pan tsukutta koto aru? パン作ったことある? (Have you ever made bread?)
- Pantsu kutta koto aru? パンツ食ったことある? (Have you ever eaten underpants?)
Other examples[]
This section needs expansion with: examples from Chinese. You can help by . (February 2019) |
A mondegreen (or in Japanese soramimi) is a holorime generated by misheard song lyrics, such as mishearing "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky" as "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy."
A homophonic translation is a holorime or near-holorime where the two homophonic or near-homophonic readings come from different languages, such as "Humpty Dumpty" in English and "Un petit d'un petit" in French. Homophonic translations are a specific form of macaronic wordplay.
French author Raymond Roussel described his writing process as a method of connecting two sentences that were holorimes of each other, "I chose two similar words. For example billard (billiard) and pillard (looter). Then I added to it words similar but taken in two different directions, and I obtained two almost identical sentences thus. The two sentences found, it was a question of writing a tale which can start with the first and finish by the second."
See also[]
References[]
- ^ "Holorime". Wordspy. 1997-02-28. Retrieved 2020-12-23.
- ^ Paul Hammond; Patrick Hughes (1978). Upon the Pun: Dual Meaning in Words and Pictures. W.H. Allen. ISBN 9780491020930.
- ^ "Oronyms". Wordspy. 1997-11-29. Retrieved 2020-12-23.
- ^ "Meaning of Ginatayomi". Goo辞書 (in Japanese). Retrieved 2020-12-23.
- ^ Jack Richardson (2016-10-18). "Dajare: 13 Types of Japanese Puns and How to Use Them to Practice Japanese". tofugu.com.
External links[]
- Rhyme
- Poetry stubs