Gem pointed out that the songs from The Wizard of Oz have a remarkably high number of half rhymes.
For example:
- With the thoughts you’d be thinkin’ / You could be another Lincoln
- I’d unravel any riddle / For any individdle
- But I could show my prowess / Be a lion not a mou-ess
- Just because I’m presumin’ / that I could be kind-a-human / If I only had heart.
Most of the time, the actors distort their pronunciation to make the rhymes work.
I like this quality. As well as making the songs inherently humorous, it also emphasises Oz as a predominantly pre-literate culture, where language is not fixed and can be moulded into whatever shape it’s needed for.
Googling around, I found a lovely blog post about pronunciation in The Wizard of Oz that doesn’t specifically mention half-rhymes, but is nevertheless interesting.