Re: Rhyming Conlangs

On Sunday 14 October 2001 02:02, laokou wrote:

> In other words, I guess, would "syncopation" and "lenition" be
> considered rhymes in English (I doubt it)
I wouldn't, not in English.

> as opposed to
> "syncopation" and "alien nation"? And is "syncopation"/"oration" or
> "syncopation/occupation" considered a better rhyme?
Yes, I consider that a better rhyme in English, but it's probably a
matter of taste. (I'd probably hear 'alien nation' as 'alienation' in
the first case)

> I don't think
> the Romance languages have these issues (German seems to play).
I'm not sure about Romance languages, but medieval Latin considers
/'miser/, /'niger/ and /'fortiter/ as rhyming.

> Are these masculine/feminine rhyme issues? How many syllables back
> does one need to go for a "great rhyme" (the Valdyan song is to die
> from, but does it [endings in '-at'] rhyme?
Well, Valdyans think it rhymes. Only the final syllable is considered
to determine a rhyme, even though it's usually unstressed because
it's an affix more often than not (stress falls on the first syllable
of the stem). Poets use the (usually stressed) different penultimate
syllables to break the monotony of the aaaa rhyme. Having
rhyming penultimate syllables as well (chalat/valat) is weaker.

> [singing allows for
> near-rhymes]).
Also, some languages consider a stressed and an unstressed syllable
as an almost-rhyme; there's a whole Welsh verse form built on that.

   Irina

--
irina@valdyas.org                        http://www.valdyas.org/irina
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