Halfrijm

Halfrijm is the Dutch term for half rhyme, a category of rhyme in which the final sounds of two words are similar but not identical. In Dutch poetics, halfrijm sits between a perfect rijm (full rhyme) and no rhyme at all, providing a subtler sonic link between paired words. The concept is used to describe how poets create cohesion and musicality when exact rhymes are not desired or possible.

Halfrijm can take several forms. One common type is consonant halfrijm, where the final consonants or consonant clusters match while the preceding vowels differ. Another is assonant halfrijm, where the vowels align but the consonants differ. Some analyses stress that halfrijm may involve only partial matching of stressed syllables or sound sequences, yielding a rhyme that is noticeable but less forceful than a full rhyme.

In translation and multilingual poetry, halfrijm is often used to maintain rhyme pressure while accommodating phonetic differences between languages. In English-language criticism, the closest concept is slant rhyme or near rhyme, though terminological boundaries differ by tradition. Dutch scholars may also distinguish halfrijm from internal rhymes and from perfect rijm.

See also: Slant rhyme, near rhyme, assonance, consonance, rhyme.