User:Heilprin/New sandbox

Rhyme in Russian: the Russian section of the Rhyme article needs clarification. It seems some of the discussion is based on a misunderstanding of Wachtel, the one source cited:

Russian

Rhyme was introduced into Russian poetry in the 18th century. Folk poetry had generally been unrhymed, relying more on dactylic line endings for effect. Two words ending in an accented vowel are only considered to rhyme if they share a preceding consonant. Vowel pairs rhyme—even though non-Russian speakers may not perceive them as the same sound. Consonant pairs rhyme if both are devoiced. As in French, formal poetry traditionally alternates between masculine and feminine rhymes.

Early 18th-century poetry demanded perfect rhymes that were also grammatical rhymes—namely that noun endings rhymed with noun endings, verb endings with verb endings, and so on. Such rhymes relying on morphological endings become much rarer in modern Russian poetry, and greater use is made of approximate rhymes.

1. "ending in an accented vowel" is misleading: it seems to describe only masculine rhyme, but vowel similarity is crucial for other types of rhyme too (f, D, hD, etc.)

2. the shared C need not precede the V - often it follows

3. the only vowel pair Wachtel mentions as perhaps not perceptible to an E-speaking reader is i/y

4. the devoicing of consonant pairs applies only in final position

5. it's not clear that the information in the first paragraph refers to rhymes beyond the 18c