Rhymes, assonance, alliteration and consonant echoes counted on IPA
phonemes within sentences — the poetic machinery of Joyce's prose,
in numbers.
1. Method
All echoes are counted on IPA phonemes (transcription as on the
"music" subpage), within sentences, with function words excluded from
the rhyme and consonant-echo rankings. Exact rhyme = identical phonemes
from the last stressed vowel to the end of the word — so words rhyme by
pronunciation, not by spelling. 15,061 sentences
analysed.
2. Intra-sentence rhymes
Pairs of rhyming words within one sentence: 10,762.
Most frequent pairs:
ever ~ never (×9) “If the proverbial bishop of our holy and undivided with this me ken or no me ken Zot is the Quiztune…”
cold ~ old (×8) “) to an over — flow meeting of all the nations in Lenster fullyfilling the visional area and, as a s…”
tell ~ well (×8) “Feueragusaria iordenwater; now godsun shine on menday's daughter; a good clap, a fore marriage, a ba…”
night ~ right (×6) “He vows her to be his own honeylamb, swears they will be papa pals, by Sam, and share good times way…”
around ~ round (×6) “; god at the top of the staircase, carrion on the mat of straw; the false hood of a spindler web cho…”
last ~ past (×5) “'s Grace, Gibbering Bayamouth of Dublin, His Farther was a Mundzucker and She had him in a Growler, …”
found ~ round (×5) “; god at the top of the staircase, carrion on the mat of straw; the false hood of a spindler web cho…”
honuphrius ~ magravius (×5) “Anita the wife of Honophrius, has been told by her tirewoman, Fortissa, that Honuphrius has blasphem…”
green ~ seen (×4) “(Chorus) Big earwigs on the green, The largest ever you seen”
head ~ said (×4) “Though the last straw glimt his baring this stage thunkhard is said (the pitfallen gagged him as 'Pr…”
look ~ took (×4) “Because it is a horrible thing to have to say to say to day but one dilalah, Lupita Lorette, shortly…”
behind ~ find (×4) “'s Grace, Gibbering Bayamouth of Dublin, His Farther was a Mundzucker and She had him in a Growler, …”
night ~ white (×4) “For Ark see Zoo, Cleopater's Nedlework Ficturing Aldborougham on the Sahara with the Coombing of the…”
along ~ long (×4) “In fact, under the closed eyes of the inspectors the traits featuring the chiaroscuro coalesce, thei…”
heard ~ word (×4) “) the steady monologuy of the interiors; the pardonable confusion for which some blame the cudgel an…”
long ~ song (×4) “; piles big pelium on little ossas like the pilluls of hirculeads; has an eatupus complex and a drin…”
light ~ night (×4) “; his suns the huns, his dartars the tartars, are plenty here today; who repulsed from his burst the…”
female ~ male (×4) “Now there can be no question about it either that I having done as much, have quite got the size of …”
I count assonance as a run: a series of consecutive words
in one sentence sharing the same peak (stressed) vowel. The number at
each item is the length of that single run — not the phoneme's corpus
frequency (tens of thousands of words carry these vowels; /ɪ/ is the
most frequent phoneme of the text). Runs of ≥3 words found:
1,386; the longest below:
a run of 15 consecutive words on /ɪ/: “gnarlybird ygathering runalittle doalittle preealittle pouralittle wipealittle kicksalittle severalittle eatalittle whinealittle kenalittle helfalittle pelfalittle gnarlybird”
a run of 8 consecutive words on /æ/: “shortartempa bad cad dad fad sad mad nad”
a run of 7 consecutive words on /ə/: “muertification and uxpiration and dumnation and annuhulation”
a run of 7 consecutive words on /ɪ/: “into chancerisk wishing him with his famblings”
a run of 6 consecutive words on /ɪ/: “since his shebi his shide adi”
a run of 6 consecutive words on /eɪ/: “waiting they wait taking they take”
a run of 6 consecutive words on /ɔ/: “for all for all all all”
a run of 6 consecutive words on /æ/: “laugh that flat that after that”
a run of 6 consecutive words on /æ/: “paa lickam laa lickam apl lpa”
a run of 6 consecutive words on /eɪ/: “moanday tearsday wailsday thumpsday frightday shatterday”
a run of 6 consecutive words on /ɛ/: “paperstainers parishclerks fletcherbowyers girdlers mercers cordwainers”
a run of 6 consecutive words on /ɪ/: “sins pip pip pip willpip futurepip”
4. Phonemic alliteration
Analogously: runs of consecutive words sharing their first phoneme
(the number = length of a single run). Unlike letter-based
alliteration this catches sh-/sch- as /ʃ/ and ph-/f- as /f/.
Runs of ≥3 words: 1,208. Longest:
a run of 21 consecutive words on /p/: “pin puff pive piff piff puff pive poo poo puff pive pree pree puff pive pfoor pfoor puff pive pippive poopive”
a run of 9 consecutive words on /h/: “hicky hecky hock huges huges huges hughy hughy hughy”
a run of 8 consecutive words on /t/: “tilling teel tum telling toll teary turty taubling”
a run of 7 consecutive words on /b/: “bald black bronze brown brindled betteraved blanchemanged”
a run of 7 consecutive words on /b/: “boosted blasted bleating blatant bloaten blasphorus blesphorous”
a run of 7 consecutive words on /d/: “dark deadly dismal doleful desolate dreadful desperate”
a run of 7 consecutive words on /w/: “windr wondr wildr weltr wirbl warbl world”
a run of 7 consecutive words on /t/: “tay tibby tanny tummy tasty tosty tay”
a run of 6 consecutive words on /h/: “hoother had his hurricane hips his”
a run of 6 consecutive words on /m/: “milk music married missusses might mercy”
a run of 6 consecutive words on /f/: “flouts for forecasts flairs for finds”
a run of 6 consecutive words on /t/: “tel tartaran tastarin toothsome tarrascone tourtoun”
5. Consonant echoes (ablaut play)
Pairs of words in one sentence with an identical consonant skeleton
but different vowels — the tip/top, mishe/mashe device:
2,196 pairs. Most frequent:
like ~ look (×15) “The latter, the luciferant not the oriuolate (who, the odds are, is still berting dagabout in the sa…”
man ~ many (×10) “There's many a smile to Nondum, with sytty maids per man, sir, and the park's so dark by kindlelight”
last ~ lost (×7) “But from the good turn when he last was lost, check, upon Ye Hill of Rut in full winter coat with ti…”
live ~ love (×6) “Answer: They war loving, they love laughing, they laugh weeping, they weep smelling, they smell smil…”
back ~ buck (×4) “Cycloptically through the windowdisks and with eddying awes the round eyes of the rundreisers, back …”
tap ~ tip (×4) “He spud in his faust (axin); he toped the raw best (pardun); he poked his pick (a tip is a tap): and…”
along ~ long (×4) “In fact, under the closed eyes of the inspectors the traits featuring the chiaroscuro coalesce, thei…”
lead ~ old (×4) “those ars all bellical, the highpriest's hieroglyph of kettletom and oddsbones, wrasted redhandedly …”
sing ~ song (×4) “; piles big pelium on little ossas like the pilluls of hirculeads; has an eatupus complex and a drin…”
came ~ come (×4) “; god at the top of the staircase, carrion on the mat of straw; the false hood of a spindler web cho…”
feel ~ full (×4) “; god at the top of the staircase, carrion on the mat of straw; the false hood of a spindler web cho…”
find ~ found (×4) “; his suns the huns, his dartars the tartars, are plenty here today; who repulsed from his burst the…”
dear ~ dearo (×4) “Ah, dearo, dear”
laughed ~ left (×3) “They lived und laughed ant loved end left”
made ~ meed (×3) “For that (the rapt one warns) is what papyr is meed of, made of, hides and hints and misses in print…”
alike ~ alook (×3) “And spoke she to the dour in her petty perusi — enne: Mark the Wans, why do I am alook alike a poss …”
tall ~ tell (×3) “Landloughed by his neaghboormis — tress and perpetrified in his offsprung, sabes and suckers, the mo…”
tell ~ toll (×3) “Landloughed by his neaghboormis — tress and perpetrified in his offsprung, sabes and suckers, the mo…”
6. Echo density across the book (slider)
The book in 100 equal windows; values are echoes per 1,000 words.
Vertical dashes — boundaries of Books I–IV; the grey line — slider
position.