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letter avoidance

Form
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

A type of constrained writing that deliberately omits one or more letters of the alphabet

Detailed Definition
Letter avoidance is a constrained writing technique where the poet deliberately omits one or more letters of the alphabet throughout a composition; this self-imposed limitation, such as a lipogram excluding “e,” challenges lexical choice and syntax, often yielding inventive diction and heightened awareness of linguistic structure, as famously demonstrated in Georges Perec’s novel "La Disparition."
Example
Example in poetry:
Georges Perec’s La Disparition avoids the letter “e” entirely; Ernest Vincent Wright’s Gadsby is a novel without the letter “e”; In poetry, lipograms avoid specific letters for constraint; Avoiding “s” in a poem about silence demonstrates letter avoidance
Additional Notes
Letter avoidance (a type of constrained writing) deliberately omits specific letters from a text (e.g., lipograms); challenges poets to rethink vocabulary and syntax while drawing attention to language’s materiality.
Also Known As
Alphabetical Omission Letter Exclusion Constrained Lexicon Lipogrammatic Verse Lipogram
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