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Character variant

Concept
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Different typographic or orthographic renderings of the same linguistic character, sometimes exploited in visual or concrete poetry for aesthetic effect.

Detailed Definition
A character variant in poetry refers to an alternate spelling, glyph, or orthographic form of a letter or word used for visual, historical, or symbolic effect; this technique, common in concrete or experimental poetry, draws attention to the materiality of language, as when e.e. cummings uses lowercase “i” to signify humility or fragmentation.
Example
Example in poetry:
Character variant uses alternate glyphs for poetic effect: e.e. cummings’ lowercase “i” as character variant; Chinese poets use variant characters for tonal nuance; contemporary digital poets employ Unicode symbols as character variants; the technique appears in concrete poetry where letterforms depict meaning; character variant challenges standard typography and reading habits
Additional Notes
A slight alteration in the name, attributes, or description of a character across different versions or retellings of a myth, story, or epic poem; Requires the reader to track the evolution of the figure across texts; Related to intertextuality.
Also Known As
character form glyph variation script alternative typographic variant Allograph
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