figures of speech - What is the term for repetition of an initial syllable in successive words?


In Anne Tyler’s A Spool of Blue Thread, one character comments on the name of another



Carla Carlucci: alliteration. Or something more than alliteration, but I don’t know the term for it.



Alliteration is



the use of the same consonant (consonantal alliteration) or of a vowel, not necessarily the same vowel (vocalic alliteration), at the beginning of each word or each stressed syllable in a line of verse, as in around the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran.



Collins


Homeoteleuton is



the use of word-endings that are similar or the same, either intentionally for rhetorical effect or by mistake during copying of text.



Collins


An example is found in Ursula K. LeGuin's The Lathe of Heaven



He arrived at ideas the slow way, never skating over the clear, hard ice of logic, nor soaring on the slipstreams of imagination, but slogging, plodding along on the heavy ground of existence.



Obviously there is alliteration present in Ms. Tyler’s example, but it does seem like something more, deserving of its own nomenclature. Is there a standard term for the repeated use of a syllable at the beginning of successive words?



Answer



Rhyme — Literary Devices



Rhyme is a popular literary device in which the repetition of the same or similar sounds occurs in two or more words, usually at the end of lines in poems or songs.



But it's not restricted to word endings. Rhymes can be of many types.


For example, Rhymer gives the following taxonomy:




  1. End Rhymes (blue/shoe)

  2. Last Syllable Rhymes (timber/harbor)

  3. Double Rhymes (conviction/prediction)

  4. Triple Rhymes (transportation/dissertation)

  5. Beginning Rhymes (physics/fizzle)

  6. First Syllable Rhymes (carrot/caring)


[Italicization of mentioned words added]



Your example of Carla/Carlucci is an example of First Syllable Rhyme (for example, carrot/caring). Rhymer explains:



Words with first syllable rhyme have the same sounds preceding the first syllable break. For example, if you enter the word explanation using this option, Rhymer retrieves a list of words with the sound ex (e.g., excavate, exhale, expert, and extra). Other examples of first syllable rhyme include:




  • pantaloons/pantomimes




  • highlight/hydrant




  • tulip/twosome




[Italicization of mentioned words added]



Alternate names for first syllable rhyme might include:



  • beginning syllable rhyme

  • initial syllable rhyme

  • head syllable rhyme


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