Editing Alliteration (section)

===Rhetoric===

Literary alliteration has been used in various spheres of public speaking and rhetoric. It can also be used as an artistic constraint in oratory to sway the audience to feel some type of urgency,<ref>{{cite news|last=Bitzer|first=Lloyd|title=The Rhetorical Situation|year=1968|publisher=Philosophy and Rhetoric}}</ref> or another emotional effect. For example, S sounds can imply danger or make the audience feel as if they are being deceived.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://udleditions.cast.org/craft_ld_alliteration.html |title=Literary Devices: Alliteration |work= Author's Craft |access-date=2014-09-26}}</ref> Other sounds can likewise generate positive or negative responses.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Team |first=N. F. I. |date=2022-03-04 |title=Alliteration - Everything You Need To Know |url=https://www.nfi.edu/alliteration/ |access-date=2023-10-24 |website=NFI |language=en-US}}</ref> Alliteration serves to "intensify any attitude being signified".<ref name=Lanham>{{cite book|last=Lanham|first=Richard|title=A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms|year=1991|publisher=University of California Press|location=Los Angeles|isbn=978-0-520-27368-9|page=131}}</ref>{{rp|6–7}}

An example is in John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address, in which he uses alliteration 21 times. The last paragraph of his speech is given as an example here.

"Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on Earth God's work must truly be our own." — [[John F. Kennedy]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://englishleaflet.com/4-things-that-made-jfks-inaugural-address-so-effective/ |title=4 things that made JFK's Inaugural Address so effective |work=}}</ref>

==== Examples of alliteration from public speeches ====
* "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." — [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://blog.flocabulary.com/i-have-a-dream-speech-analysis-lesson-plan/ |title=I Have A Dream Speech Analysis Lesson Plan |work=[[Flocabulary]] |date=2012-01-11}}</ref>
* "We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths—that all of us are created equal—is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth". — [[Barack Obama]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://rhetoriciansnotebook.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/obamas-alliteration/ |title=Obama's Alliteration |work=The Rhetorician's Notebook |date=2013-01-21}}</ref>
* "And our nation itself is testimony to the love our veterans have had for it and for us. All for which America stands is safe today because brave men and women have been ready to face the fire at freedom's front." — [[Ronald Reagan]], Vietnam Veterans Memorial Address.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.americanrhetoric.com/figures/alliteration.htm|title=Rhetorical Figures in Sound: Alliteration|work=americanrhetoric.com}}</ref>
* "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal". — [[Abraham Lincoln]], [[Gettysburg Address]].
* "Patent portae; proficiscere!" ("The gates are open; depart!") — [[Cicero]], ''[[Catiline Orations|In Catilinam]]'' 1.10.
* "Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam." ("Furthermore, I consider that Carthage must be destroyed") — [[Cato the Elder]]
* "Bleach blonde bad-built butch body" — [[Jasmine Crockett]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kurtz |first=Judy |date=2024-05-21 |title=Jasmine Crockett moves to trademark 'bleach blonde bad built butch body' |url=https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/4677117-jasmine-crockett-trademark-bleach-blonde-bad-built-butch-body-marjorie-taylor-greene/ |access-date=2024-09-26 |website=[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]] |language=en-US}}</ref>

Translation can lose the emphasis developed by this device. For example, in the accepted Greek text of Luke 10:41<ref>''The Greek New Testament'', 4th rev ed, ed. Kurt Aland, et al (Stuttgart: UBS, 1983), 247 n 7.</ref> the repetition and extension of initial sound are noted as Jesus doubles Martha's name and adds an alliterative description: Μάρθα Μάρθα μεριμνᾷς (Martha, Martha, merimnas). This is lost in the English NKJ and NRS translations "Martha, Martha, you are ''w''orried and distracted by many things."