Home › Glossary › Letter D

Digenic rhyme

Rhyme
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

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

A rhyme that links words from two different languages based on phonetic similarity, creating cross-linguistic sonic bridges in multilingual or translational poetry.

Detailed Definition
Digenic rhyme is a complex rhyming scheme involving two distinct phonetic sources or layers—such as combining internal and end rhyme, or blending assonance with consonance—so that each rhyming pair resonates on multiple sonic levels; this technique enriches auditory texture and challenges the ear to perceive overlapping patterns, often used in multilingual or polyphonic poetic compositions.
Example
Example in poetry:
Digenic rhyme (rhyme derived from two roots) appears in Shakespeare’s “love / move” where both share Germanic and Latin influences; In Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale”: “forlorn / sworn” blends Old English and French roots; Emily Dickinson’s “hope / rope” uses Germanic and Latin-derived words in slant rhyme; W.B. Yeats’ “Sailing to Byzantium”: “artifice / gyre” combines Greek and Latin roots; Contemporary poet Terrance Hayes uses digenic rhyme in “American Sonnet” series for linguistic hybridity.
Additional Notes
Digenic rhyme links words through two distinct phonetic pathways (e.g., slant + assonance); expands traditional rhyme possibilities—use in free verse to create subtle sonic cohesion.
Also Known As
Twin-origin rhyme Dual-source rhyme Binary rhyme Bifurcated sound pattern
Skip to main content