Jeopardy! Fans Call Out Writers Over Misuse of ‘Alliteration’
Jeopardy! fans are quick to call out questionable clues. However, in the October 31 episode, grammar sticklers zeroed in on something specific: a possible misuse of alliteration with the phrase “Happy Hour.”
The contestants were returning champion Joseph Carlstein, a graduate student from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Greg Jolin, a system specialist and accountant from Raymond, New Hampshire, and Alicia Buffa, a translator from Montreal, Quebec.
In the Jeopardy! round, Jolin (who’d go on to win his first game with $24,001), selected the $200 clue in the “A Question of Time” category.
It read, “The Navy popularized this alliterative term for scheduled entertainment time; it’s caught on at bars around the world.” He responded, “Happy Hour.” Ken Jennings ruled him correct, as this was the desired response.
But many fans on Reddit and elsewhere were not so convinced. While some shared they enjoyed learning that the term originated with the Navy, quite a few argued that “Happy Hour” does not meet the definition of an alliteration. While both words start with the same letter, they don’t start not the same sound.
“Since when is “happy hour” alliterative?” one fan wrote.
Recent nine day-champ Isaac Hirsch responded: “Happy and hour both begin with H, so it’s alliterative.”
However, other users turned-grammar police also sounded their alarms, as a third replied, “Alliteration is supposed to refer to sound. ‘Photogenic frog’ is alliterative. ‘Happy hour’ is not.”
“The ‘litera’ in ‘alliteration’ is the Latin word for ‘letter'” argued a fourth.
“Different online dictionaries disagree,” wrote a fifth, citing the below dictionary definitions:
Merriam Webster: defines alliteration as “the repetition of usually initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables (such as wild and woolly, threatening throngs)”
But dictionary.com has two definitions: “the commencement of two or more stressed syllables of a word group” or “the commencement of two or more words of a word group with the same letter.”
As per the Oxford English Dictionary, “Alliteration” indeed comes from Latin, meaning “to the letter.”
But as one more pointed out, there’s still ambiguity there, as they wrote: “In Latin, there was very little differentiation between letter and sound. Things were spelled the way they were pronounced and pronounced the way they were spelled. Same is true of Italian. The definition is rather outdated when talking about English.”
This isn’t the first time a clue has been called into question during Season 41, which premiered September 9. Of course, there was the “girls who wears glasses” controversy earlier this week, as well as multiple Final Jeopardy triple-stumpers fans felt were “terrible” and the acceptance of that “illegible” Final Jeopardy response.
What do you think, was Jeopardy! in the wrong in calling “Happy Hour” an alliteration? Let us know in the comments section!
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P
From a retired English teacher: Happy Hour is definitely NOT an example of alliteration. It has to be a repetition at the beginning of each word of the same sound.
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right, gloria! [from an aging grammer cop.
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] [sorry, i forgot that. guess i'm aging faster than i thought!]
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The simple, salient point is the need for similarity of sounds.
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great example of alliteration, jt!
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R
If you talk like Eliza Doolittle, pre-education, then 'appy hour does start with the same initial sound. But would it not then be assonance?
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Retired English teacher—- Definitely not alliteration
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English is evolving through common usage.
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Words are defined by usage, not by their etymology.
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Exactly. Let the grammar police look up vernacular, idiomatic and colloquial.
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Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more
noun
the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
"the alliteration of “sweet birds sang”"
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C
I think the test is: "nice mnemonics", or "mysterious mnemonics".
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Crazy Crayola, Howard Hughes, Happy Hippo...
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I think a better answer would have been Rest and Relaxation.
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Evolve, people! There was a time when ain't wasn't in the dictionary. Language changes; that's why doctors and others use Latin (dead language).
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In English, it is the sound repetition that makes words alliterative. Spoken English works differently than Latin and Italian because its origins are a combonation of Anglo Saxon and French; therefore aliteration in English functions phonetically, not literally.c
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Is "professional psychiatrist" alliteration? Is "psoriasis sucks" alliteration? For me, it's the sound, not the letter.
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Or the young philosopher jung, carl. And my favorite phonetic oddity: ghoti spells fish
Gh as in tough
O as in women
And ti as in nation
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Attributed to G.B. Shaw. I tell that to young people all the time.. English makes no sense.
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I’m still aghast that commas and periods continue to be placed outside the quotation marks. I’ve sent several letters over the years to hopefully rectify the bad grammar, but those letters never made an impact on the writers. Commas and periods are ALWAYS placed inside the quotation marks, even if it’s just one word!
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Only if part of the quote itself, otherwise they go outside of the quotes
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How about george gray shoutingout mama may every day on the price is right Mr zunk
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It bugs me every day when Ken is first introduced. He always thanks Johnny Gilbert, but rarely thanks the audience for welcoming him onto the stage.
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