Tautogram

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A tautogram (Greek: tauto gramma, "same letter") is a text in which all words start with the same letter. Historically, tautograms were mostly poetical forms ([1]). The difference between a tautogram and alliteration is that the former is more restrictive—all the words in the sentence must start with the same sound. Most cases of alliteration are also tautograms, though certainly not all since different letters can frequently take on the same sound (e.g., circle segment or Catcher Ken). Tautograms are meant to be a written, visual phenomenon, whereas alliteration is a phonetic one.

[edit] Tautograms in English

  • Truly tautograms triumph, trumpeting trills to trounce terrible travesties.
  • Todd told Tom the termite to trot through the timber.

[edit] Tautograms in other languages

  • Russian

An example of a tautogram in Russian is a poem by V. Smirenskiy with all words starting with "L":

Ленивых лет легко ласканье,
Луга лиловые люблю,
Ловлю левкоев ликованье,
Легенды ломкие ловлю.
Лучистый лён любовно лепит
Лазурь ласкающих лесов.
Люблю лукавых лилий лепет,
Летящий ладан лепестков.

A more common example is a well-known in Russia childish tongue-twister (all words start with "ch"):

Четыре чёрненьких чумазеньких чертёнка чертили чёрными чернилами чертёж.
(Four black smudgy little devils were drawing a draft in black ink)

[edit] See also