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'''Homeoteleuton''', also spelled as '''homoeoteleuton''' and '''homoioteleuton''', (from the [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] ''ὁμοιοτέλευτον'',<sup>[1]</sup>
#REDIRECT [[Homeoteleuton]]
''homoioteleuton'', "like ending") is the repetition of endings in words. Homeoteleuton is also known as '''near rhyme'''.<sup>[2]</sup>
 
==History==
Homeoteleuton (homoioteleuton) was first identified by [[Aristotle]] in his ''[[Rhetoric (Aristotle)|Rhetoric]]'', where he identifies it as two lines of verse which end with words having the same ending. He uses the example of
 
:ᾦηθησαν αὐτὸν παίδιον τετοκέναι
:ἀλλ' αὐτοῦ αἴτιον γεγονέναι (1410a20)
 
:''ōiēthēsan auton paidion tetokenai,''
:''all' autou aition gegonenai'' (1410a20)
 
:they thought that he was the father of a child,
:but that he was the cause of it (1410a20)<sup>[3]</sup>
 
In [[Latin]] rhetoric and poetry homeoteleuton was a frequently used device. It was used to associate the two words which had the similar endings and bring them to the reader's attention.
 
:We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity,
:and society cannot trample on the weak''est'' and feebl''est''
:of its members without receiving the curse in its own soul.
:(Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, speech, 1866)
 
:Hungry people cannot be good at learn''ing''
:or produc''ing'' anyth''ing'' except
:perhaps violence.
:(Pearl Bailey, Pearl's Kitchen)
 
:He arrived at ideas the slow way, never skat''ing''
:over the clear, hard ice of logic, nor soar''ing''
:on the slipstreams of imagination, but slogg''ing'',
:plodd''ing'' along on the heavy ground of existence.
:(Ursula K. LeGuin, The Lathe of Heaven)</poem>
 
==Types of homeoteleuton==
Today, homeoteleuton denotes more than Aristotle's original definition.
 
===Near rhyme===
As rhyme, homeoteleuton is not very effective. It is the repetition of word endings. Because endings are usually unstressed and rhyme arises from stressed [[syllable]]s, they do not rhyme well at all. In the following passage
 
::The waters rose rapidly,
::and I dove under quickly.
 
both ''rapidly'' and ''quickly'' end with the [[adverb|adverbial]] ending ''-ly''. Although they end with the same sound, they don't rhyme because the stressed syllable on each word (RA-pid-ly and QUICK-ly) has a different sound.<sup>[4]</sup>
 
However, use of this device still ties words together in a sort of rhyme or echo relationship, even in prose passages:
 
<poem>It is important to use all knowledge ethical''ly'',
humane''ly'', and loving''ly''.
(Carol Pearson, The Hero Within)</poem>
 
"Well, sir, here's to plain speak''ing'' and clear understand''ing''."
(Caspar Gutman to Sam Spade, Chapter XI (The Fat Man) in Dashiell Hammett, ''The Maltese Falcon'' (1930)
 
"The cheap''er'' the crook, the gaudi''er'' the patt''er''."
(Sam Spade to Wilmer, Chapter XII (Merry-Go-Round) in Dashiell Hammett, ''The Maltese Falcon'' (1930)
 
===Scribal error===
In the field of [[palaeography]] and [[textual criticism]], homeoteleuton has also come to mean a form of copyist error present in ancient texts. A scribe would be writing out a new copy of a frequently reproduced book, such as the [[Bible]]. As the scribe was reading the original text, his eyes would skip from one word to the same word on a later line, leaving out a line or two in the transcription. When transcripts were made of the scribe's flawed copy (and not the original) errors are passed on into posterity.
 
One example of this falsely claimed to be found in the Bible, more specifically in [[1 Samuel 11]]. The [[Israel|Israelite]] city of [[Jabesh-Gilead]] was under siege by the [[Ammon]]ites:
 
 
::Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and camped against Jabesh-gilead: and all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee. But Nahash the Ammonite answered them, On this ''condition'' I will make a ''covenant'' with you, that I thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it ''for'' a reproach upon all Israel. [[1 Samuel 11:1]]-[[1 Samuel 11:2|2]]
 
 
Textual critics claim that prior passages do not explain Nahash's desire to blind the Israelites, and scholars have been unable to explain this punishment in the context of the Bible. A find from the [[Dead Sea scrolls]], the scroll 4QSam<sup>a</sup>, gives the missing beginning the I Samuel 11.<sup>[5]</sup> Some very recent English translations (such as the [[TNIV]]) add the reading in a footnote.
 
==References==
 
== Further reading ==
* ''Holy Bible: Concordance.'' World Publishing Company: Cleveland.
* Cuddon, J.A., ed. ''The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory.'' 3rd ed. Penguin Books: New York, 1991.
* Smyth, Herbert Weir (1920). Greek Grammar. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. p. 678. ISBN 0-674-36250-0.
* Paul D. Wegner, [http://books.google.pl/books?id=SIMsY6b2n2gC&pg=PA49&lpg=PA49&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false ''A student's guide to textual criticism of the Bible: its history, methods, and results''], InterVarsity Press, 2006, p. 49.
 
[[Category:Palaeography]]
[[Category:Rhetorical techniques]]

Latest revision as of 06:27, 7 December 2015

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