Rhythm pattern discovery in Niger-Congo story-telling
Description of interactive oral story-telling in West African Niger-Congo languages, “orature” in contrast to “literature”, has traditionally been firmly in the domain of anthropological linguistics. The discourse structures of narrator-responder interaction and call-response chanted interludes and...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-05-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Communication |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2023.1090030/full |
| _version_ | 1797825468323332096 |
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| author | Dafydd Gibbon |
| author_facet | Dafydd Gibbon |
| author_sort | Dafydd Gibbon |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Description of interactive oral story-telling in West African Niger-Congo languages, “orature” in contrast to “literature”, has traditionally been firmly in the domain of anthropological linguistics. The discourse structures of narrator-responder interaction and call-response chanted interludes and their prosody are an open challenge to discourse analysts, linguists and phoneticians. Two orature examples from related Niger-Congo languages, recorded during fieldwork in Côte d'Ivoire, are analyzed from a macrostructural acoustic phonetic perspective in terms of realtime rhythms, and then compared with other related orature examples and examples of reading aloud. In this transdisciplinary methodology, long time domains of up to 5 min in duration and beyond are studied using long-term spectra and spectrograms of the amplitude modulation of speech. Long-distance timing regularities and their variation during story-telling exchanges are analyzed in detail and explained in terms of Rhythm Formant Theory (RFT), a further development of Speech Modulation Theory, and its associated methodology Rhythm Formant Analysis (RFA). |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T10:54:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-870fb848d666424c833cba9ae4a6db74 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2297-900X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T10:54:28Z |
| publishDate | 2023-05-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Communication |
| spelling | doaj.art-870fb848d666424c833cba9ae4a6db742023-05-17T05:33:26ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Communication2297-900X2023-05-01810.3389/fcomm.2023.10900301090030Rhythm pattern discovery in Niger-Congo story-tellingDafydd GibbonDescription of interactive oral story-telling in West African Niger-Congo languages, “orature” in contrast to “literature”, has traditionally been firmly in the domain of anthropological linguistics. The discourse structures of narrator-responder interaction and call-response chanted interludes and their prosody are an open challenge to discourse analysts, linguists and phoneticians. Two orature examples from related Niger-Congo languages, recorded during fieldwork in Côte d'Ivoire, are analyzed from a macrostructural acoustic phonetic perspective in terms of realtime rhythms, and then compared with other related orature examples and examples of reading aloud. In this transdisciplinary methodology, long time domains of up to 5 min in duration and beyond are studied using long-term spectra and spectrograms of the amplitude modulation of speech. Long-distance timing regularities and their variation during story-telling exchanges are analyzed in detail and explained in terms of Rhythm Formant Theory (RFT), a further development of Speech Modulation Theory, and its associated methodology Rhythm Formant Analysis (RFA).https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2023.1090030/fullRhythm Formant TheoryModulation Theoryspeech rhythmoraturestory-tellingEga |
| spellingShingle | Dafydd Gibbon Rhythm pattern discovery in Niger-Congo story-telling Frontiers in Communication Rhythm Formant Theory Modulation Theory speech rhythm orature story-telling Ega |
| title | Rhythm pattern discovery in Niger-Congo story-telling |
| title_full | Rhythm pattern discovery in Niger-Congo story-telling |
| title_fullStr | Rhythm pattern discovery in Niger-Congo story-telling |
| title_full_unstemmed | Rhythm pattern discovery in Niger-Congo story-telling |
| title_short | Rhythm pattern discovery in Niger-Congo story-telling |
| title_sort | rhythm pattern discovery in niger congo story telling |
| topic | Rhythm Formant Theory Modulation Theory speech rhythm orature story-telling Ega |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2023.1090030/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dafyddgibbon rhythmpatterndiscoveryinnigercongostorytelling |