Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2007 December 6

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December 6

failure

Does it have a perfect rhyme, both in sound (pronunciation) and form (ending spelling, i.e. _ure)? 217.11.17.251 (talk) 06:03, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

I think the perfectly rhyming word would need to end in -ailure, not just -ure. There are various rhyming words (dahlia and Australia come to mind), but I can't think of one spelled -ailure. -- JackofOz (talk) 05:49, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

torture, triplicature, sure? I did some quick Googling to find a rhyming dictionary; it returned no matches for failure. I'm not a phonologist, and perhaps it depends on dialect, but the difference in pronounciation between most "-ure" words and "failure" is so miniscule that I feel I may be making it up! Maybe you could point out the differences to me? (IPA would be fine.) — gogobera (talk) 06:38, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

As Jack said, it has to be -ailure (IPA: eiljə), not just -ure, since the stress is on -ai-.--K.C. Tang (talk) 07:09, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

torture and failure?! Do you see any resemblance in ending sound or pronuciation? Except the sound of r or perhaps er which are common in thousands of words? It seems to me that the only possible rhyme for failure is xailure, in which x might be replaced by any letter, but the result will be a non-lexical (meaningless) word. Am I correct? 217.11.17.251 (talk) 08:06, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Yes, except x could also be replaced with a group of letters, as long as the primary stress still falls on -ailure. -- JackofOz (talk) 08:51, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Cf. Feminine rhyme.--K.C. Tang (talk) 09:18, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Accents can play a *big* part in rhyming. For some American accents, torture and failure do rhyme to an extent. For me (Australian), like JackofOz, dahlia is a good rhyme (although the spelling looks different). For an American, the rhyme is (IPA: e:ljɚ). Unfortunately I can think of no rhyme. A close one is tenure, but it wouldn't sound right. Steewi (talk) 10:08, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

"I'll mail ya", "derail ya", "email ya", "jail ya": "dailier" (more daily *cof*) gailier (more gaily), "hailier" (more haily)... Not perfect rhymes, but enough to pass muster in UK RP, after a beer or two. SaundersW (talk) 16:41, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Derailleur is very close (depending on accent) and has the benefit of actually being a word. Algebraist 17:59, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

The only one I can think of is 'scalier', as in Your skin is scalier than usual. That seems to be a legitimate word, and a fairly close rhyme, though not exact. Lantzy ^talk 02:08, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Australia rhymes perfectly well with failure, in British English and Australian English.--ChokinBako (talk) 03:48, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

'jailer'? -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 08:37, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Fruitful imaginations. Thank you all. Omidinist.

Hello, sailure.  :) -- JackofOz (talk) 14:11, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Hi! What is sailure? I don't find it in dictionaries. Omidinist. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.11.17.251 (talk) 16:09, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

It's a joke spelling of sailor. —Angr ^{If you've written a quality article...} 16:37, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

A lot depends on how loose you are with your rules. For instance, one song I've heard goes "When you attend a funeral, it is sad to think that sooner'l, later those you love will do the same for you. And you may have thought it tragic, not to mention other adjec, tives to think of all the weeping they will do." You don't always have to end a sentence, or phrase, or even a word at the end of a line. That means you can end it with "your", pronounced "yer" or "yur" as it usually is. Nail your, fail your, sail your, regale your, "stale. Your", impale your, mail your. Year might work too, as would you, her, and lure, and (following "scalier") the suffixes -ier and -er. Any word at [1] could have at least one of these applied to it. Also, don't forget that you can cut the last word off, like "adjectives" above, and use the first few syllables for the rhyme instead. This is like internal rhyme, but less common. "I feel like a failure, I tried to mail your Christmas bread but it's stale, you're gonna have to tell Kaylee, 'er daughter'll wail, yearning to" ... or something. Notice the clumsy use of the first syllable of "yearning". It could be done better. [2] might also help. Black Carrot (talk) 11:54, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

That's We Will All Go Together When We Go. See also enjambement... AnonMoos (talk) 16:16, 11 December 2007 (UTC)