Want to know what does alliteration mean?

Every wondered that there was something beautiful about the speech?

Ever wondered why certain laugh lines are memorable?

It’s the power of Alliterations.

If you go to Wikipedia to know what does alliteration mean, you’ll find:

Alliteration is a figure of speech, a stylistic literary device which is identified by the repeated sound of the first or second letter in a series of words, or the repetition of the same letter sounds in stressed syllables of a phrase.

I hope you are not scratching your head.

Now, let’s hear the PublicSpeakKing version (a more simplified version).

Alliteration is a pattern in a sentence. It is nothing but a set of words starting with similar sounding syllables to have a pleasing effect on the listener. The words can be in close proximity or adjacent to each other in the sentence.

When alliterations are used, you make it easy for the ears of your audience.

Alliterations create a subtle awe because the words are pleasing to hear.

For example, check the italicized syllables in below sentence. The “p” sound forms an alliteration.

“But my habits gave me that push to plunge into the pool.”

Hate to spill the beans but you have already appreciated alliterations.

You have heard this famous book title Men are from mars, women are from venus. “m” sound” and “v” sound forms an alliteration.

In fact, simple pairs such as “bad boy,” “good guy” also form alliterations.

The applications of alliterations are endless. “a” sound here is also kind of an alliteration :).

I became a big fan of alliterations because it helps in creating laugh lines. “l” sound here is also an alliteration!

Alliterations create a pattern and rhythm in the minds of the audience. Thereby helping you engage and guide them in one direction.

I’m assuming you know that for laugh lines to work, there needs to be a change in direction. Let me explain.

How to use alliterations to create humor

The beauty of alliteration is that it uses rhythm to keep the audience going in one direction, so they are off guard when the punch line is delivered.

If you ask “what does alliteration mean” from a layman perspective, I would say, alliteration is like an additional processor that will increase the performance of your humor.

Technically, not a layman definition but I am assuming you know what a processor is :). 

Alliterations will enhance and increase the effect of humor because the audience can remember and retain your words.

In the below example, the words in italics form alliteration.

“I gasped for breath, fluttered my hands and legs as fast as possible, and I started to sink.”

The premise leads my audience to the point where they expected the speaker to begin to swim.

But I say the opposite “started to sink.”  In reality, I was not swimming either.

Hence the punch worked pretty well.

Let’s see how alliteration was used in the speech:

“started to sink” maintained the rhythm and also created the surprise.

The basic rule is not to lose track of the fact that all humor needs the element of surprise to work.

Now, I’ll share another example to see Alliteration in action.

“People exaggerate that parents in India pressure their children to become a doctor or an engineer. That’s not true. They don’t pressure. They blackmail”.

The premise or the setup in the above laugh line is “People exaggerate that parents in India pressure their children to become a doctor or an engineer. That’s not true. They don’t pressure.”

“P” sound present in people, parents, pressure creates a nice soothing effect in the listener. Now the audience is enjoying the sentence.

So when I deliver the punch line “they blackmail,” it creates the surprise and hence the laugh line proves to be effective.

In summary, what does alliteration mean?

Alliteration is just a pattern with words created when we use similar sounding syllables in our sentences.

Alliterations will only enhance the laugh line. They alone will not create a laugh line. You need to use different devices to make humor work.

However, alliterations make the sentence beautiful and also helps the spoken words to be conducive to your listener’s ears.