Difference between revisions of "Rhyme - rhythm"
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Nowadays, the meanings, spellings and pronunciations of these two words are (or should be) rigorously separate. To be clear: | Nowadays, the meanings, spellings and pronunciations of these two words are (or should be) rigorously separate. To be clear: | ||
| − | *'''rhyme''' (with no '-th-'; pronounced to rhyme with 'time' and 'climb', {{IPA|raɪm}}) is the phenomenon of 'rime': "agreement in the terminal sounds of lines or words" (''[[OED]]'', ''s.v.'' '''rime'''; echoing of the [[vowel]] and [[consonant]] sounds of words; or "consonance of the terminal sounds" ''[[OED]]'', ''s.v.'' '''rhyme'''. See also [[rhyme]], and, for a note on the spelling, [[rime - rhyme]]. | + | *'''rhyme''' (with no '-th-'; pronounced to rhyme with 'time' and 'climb', {{IPA|raɪm}}) is the phenomenon of 'rime': "agreement in the terminal sounds of lines or words" (''[[OED]]'', ''s.v.'' '''rime'''); echoing of the [[vowel]] and [[consonant]] sounds of words; or "consonance of the terminal sounds" ''[[OED]]'', ''s.v.'' '''rhyme'''. See also [[rhyme]], and, for a note on the spelling, [[rime - rhyme]]. |
*'''rhythm''' (spelled thus, and pronounced with two '[[syllable]]s' , 'RI-thum', {{IPA|rɪð<sup>ə</sup>m}}) is ,in traditional English verse, the phenomenon of 'beat', or pattern of stresses: more generally, in writing of all sorts, it is "The measured flow of words or phrases" (''[[OED]]'', ''s.v.'' '''rhythm'''). See also [[rhythm]], and, for a note on an old conundrum, [[vowels of rhythm]]. | *'''rhythm''' (spelled thus, and pronounced with two '[[syllable]]s' , 'RI-thum', {{IPA|rɪð<sup>ə</sup>m}}) is ,in traditional English verse, the phenomenon of 'beat', or pattern of stresses: more generally, in writing of all sorts, it is "The measured flow of words or phrases" (''[[OED]]'', ''s.v.'' '''rhythm'''). See also [[rhythm]], and, for a note on an old conundrum, [[vowels of rhythm]]. | ||
| − | As George Puttenham said, in ''The Arte of English Poesie'' of 1589: "This '''''rithmus''''' of theirs, is not therfore our rime, but a certaine musicall numerositie in vtterance" (cited in ''[[OED]]'' ''s. | + | As George Puttenham said, in ''The Arte of English Poesie'' of 1589: "This '''''rithmus''''' of theirs, is not therfore our rime, but a certaine musicall numerositie in vtterance" (cited in ''[[OED]]'' ''s.v.'' '''rhythmus'''; original spelling). |
The information on this page and many of the words are drawn from the ''[[OED]]'', ''s.v.'' '''rime n.<sup>1</sup>''' | The information on this page and many of the words are drawn from the ''[[OED]]'', ''s.v.'' '''rime n.<sup>1</sup>''' | ||
Revision as of 14:52, 19 April 2020
The etymological history of these words is peculiar. Although you must not confuse them in modern English, they share a common root, the Greek verb ῤειν, 'to flow'. This gave rise to the noun ῤυθμός‚ (r[h]uthmos), which became rhythmus in Latin (as it still is in German). This became rime in Old French, which is the source of rima in Italian, Spanish Provencal, Catalan and other Romance languages. (It may be speculated that the lack of a '-th-' (IPA: /θ, or voiced ð/) sound in Latin and French led to the disappearance of the letters '-th-' from the original Greek word.)
Because the vernacular (non-Latin) languages in the countries that succeeded the Roman Empire used accentual metre, rather than the quantitative metre of the classical languages, the scholars and teachers that analysed poetry (in medieval Latin) used the terms rithmi and rithmici versus to mean accentual rhythm. (Lines of verse in quantitative metre were called metra.) OED (the source of the information in this page) says: "As similarity of the terminal sounds was a common feature of accentual verse, rithmus naturally came to have the meaning of 'rime' (rhyme) in its modern sense."
Nowadays, the meanings, spellings and pronunciations of these two words are (or should be) rigorously separate. To be clear:
- rhyme (with no '-th-'; pronounced to rhyme with 'time' and 'climb', IPA: /raɪm/) is the phenomenon of 'rime': "agreement in the terminal sounds of lines or words" (OED, s.v. rime); echoing of the vowel and consonant sounds of words; or "consonance of the terminal sounds" OED, s.v. rhyme. See also rhyme, and, for a note on the spelling, rime - rhyme.
- rhythm (spelled thus, and pronounced with two 'syllables' , 'RI-thum', IPA: /rɪðəm/) is ,in traditional English verse, the phenomenon of 'beat', or pattern of stresses: more generally, in writing of all sorts, it is "The measured flow of words or phrases" (OED, s.v. rhythm). See also rhythm, and, for a note on an old conundrum, vowels of rhythm.
As George Puttenham said, in The Arte of English Poesie of 1589: "This rithmus of theirs, is not therfore our rime, but a certaine musicall numerositie in vtterance" (cited in OED s.v. rhythmus; original spelling).
The information on this page and many of the words are drawn from the OED, s.v. rime n.1
