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4 Rhythm, Prosody, Tone, Language
4 Rhythm, Prosody, Tone, Language
4. RHYTHM,
PROSODY, TONE,
LANGUAGE
RHYTHM
A STRIKING CHARACTERISTIC OF A FOREIGN LANGUAGE IS ITS RHYTHM.
ENGLISH, RUSSIAN, ARABIC AND THAI ARE STRESS-TIMED LANGUAGES. STRESSED
SYLLABLES RECUR AT APPROXIMATELY EQUAL INTERVALS. SYLLABLES MOST
OFTEN END WITH A CONSONANT.
FRENCH, SPANISH, GREEK, ITALIAN, YORUBA AND TELEGU ARE SYLLABLE TIME
LANGUAGES. SYLLABLES RECUR AT APPROXIMATELY EQUAL INTERVALS.
SYLLABLES OFTEN END WITH A VOWEL.
RHYTHMIC PATTERNS CAN BE USED TO SIGNAL DIFFERENCES IN SYNTACTIC
STRUCTURE. COMPARE:
1. The 2000-year-old skeletons
2. The two 1000-year-old skeletons
PROSODY
IN LINGUISTICS, PROSODY IS THE RHYTHM, STRESS, AND INTONATION OF SPEECH.
PROSODY MAY REFLECT VARIOUS FEATURES OF THE SPEAKER OR THE
UTTERANCE, THE EMOTIONAL STATE OF A SPEAKER, WHETHER THE UTTERANCE
IS A STEMENT, A QUESTION, OR A COMMAND; WHETHER THE SPEAKER IS BEING
IRONIC OR SARCASTIC; EMPHASIS, CONTRAST AND FOCUS.
IN TERMS OF ACOUSTICS, THE PROSODICS OF ORAL LANGUAGES INVOLVE
VARIATION IN SYLLABLE LENGTH, LOUDNESS, PITCH, AND THE FORMANT
FREQUENCIES OF SPEECH SOUNDS.
PROSODY IS OF GREAT INTEREST IN AUTOMATIC SPEECH RECOGNITION
PHONATION FREQUENCY vs TIME FOR THREE ACTORS SPEAKING THE SAME SENTENCE
(For Gods sake!) IN FOUR DIFFERENT MODES (Williams and Stevens 1972)
MEDIAN AND RANGE OF THE PHONATION FREQUENCY FOR THREE ACTORS SPEAKING
THE SAME SENTENCE: S=SORROW; N=NEUTRAL; F=FEAR; A=ANGER
RADIO ANNOUNCER SPEAKING BEFORE (top) AND AFTER (bottom) THE CRASH OF
THE HINDENBURG DIRIGIBLE (1937)
STRESS
TONE
VOICE QUALITY
VOICE QUALITY IS A BROAD TERM THAT REFERS TO THE EXTRALINGUISTIC ASPECTS OF A
SPEAKERS VOICE WITH REGARD TO IDENTITY, PERSONALITY, HEALTH, AND EMOTIONAL
STATE.
VOCAL FOLD MASS, VOCAL TRACT LENGTH, TRACHEAL LENGTH, JAW AND TONGUE SIZE,
AND NASAL CAVITY VOLUME MAY INDICATE INFORMATION ABOUT AGE, SEX, PHYSIQUE,
AND HEALTH.
Story, Titze
Hoffman, 2001)
ACCENTS
TWO COUNTRIES SEPARATED BY A COMMON LANGUAGE
Have you ever misunderstood someone or been misunderstood by someone who
speaks with a different accent? The sounds that an American hears as 'Bob the clerk'
may be heard by an Australian as 'barb the clock'.
The two most important parameters in determining different vowel sounds are the first two
formants, which are frequency bands with increased power. These are the two axes on the
graph. The axes are traditionally plotted backwards, as here, so that they approximately
correspond to the axes long used by phoneticians and linguists: F1 (vertical) approximately
corresponds to the jaw height (which correlates negatively with the extent of the mouth
opening). F2 (horizontal) approximately corresponds to the position (forward or back) of the
constriction of the vocal tract where the tongue is close to the roof of the mouth. Other
important parameters are the length of the vowel and other formants
AUSTRALIAN SPEAKER
AMERICAN SPEAKER