One-syllable article

A one-syllable article (Chinese: 同音文章; pinyin: Tóngyīn wénzhāng) is a type of constrained writing found in Chinese literature. It takes advantage of the large number of homophones in the Chinese language, particularly when writing in Classical Chinese due to historic sound changes. While the characters used in a one-syllable article have many different meanings, they are all pronounced as the same syllable, although not with the same tone. Therefore, a one-syllable article is comprehensible in writing but becomes an incomprehensible tongue twister when read aloud, especially in Mandarin Chinese pronunciation. In other regional pronunciations, not all syllables may sound alike.

Notable examples

gollark: There is no situation in which this would be beneficial, except something incredibly contrived like some of the power poles being missing but the boilers and inserters still working.
gollark: Their electrical output is directly proportional to steam consumption in all cases.
gollark: Each steam engine uses *exactly* half the output of a boiler at maximum power output.
gollark: It doesn't help.
gollark: They aren't at all useful.

See also

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