Reducing language to rhythm: Amazonian Bora drummed language exploits speech rhythm for long-distance communication.

ABSTRACT: Many drum communication systems around the world transmit information by emulating tonal and rhythmic patterns of spoken languages in sequences of drumbeats. Their rhythmic characteristics, in particular, have not been systematically studied so far, although understanding them represents a rare occasion for providing an original insight into the basic units of speech rhythm as selected by natural speech practices directly based on beats. Here, we analyse a corpus of Bora drum communication from the northwest Amazon, which is nowadays endangered with extinction. We show that four rhythmic units are encoded in the length of pauses between beats. We argue that these units correspond to vowel-to-vowel intervals with different numbers of consonants and vowel lengths. By contrast, aligning beats

SUBMITTER: Seifart F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5936885 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature