[im] dobnyelv

[Emőke Bada]

The *talking drum* is an hourglass-shaped drum
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hourglass_drum> from West Africa
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Africa>, whose pitch can be regulated
to mimic the tone <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_(linguistics)> and
prosody <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosody_(linguistics)> of human
speech. It has two drumheads <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drumhead> connected
by leather tension cords, which allow the player to modulate the pitch
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_(music)> of the drum by squeezing the
cords between their arm and body. A skilled player is able to play whole
phrases. Most talking drums sound like a human humming depending on the way
they are played. Similar hourglass-shaped drums are found in Asia
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia>, but they are not used to mimic
speech, although the idakka <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idakka> is used
to mimic vocal music.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talking_drum

Emőke Bada
emoke.org

On 29 April 2018 at 11:21, János Sugár <sj at c3.hu> wrote:

> In the forests of the Amazon, West Africa, and Asia, villagers often beat
> on large drums to send messages miles away. While you may think that the
> patterns are similar to Morse Code, they're actually simplified versions of
> the villagers' spoken languages
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hb2k03srs0
>
> The intervals between beats changed in length depending on the sounds that
> followed each vowel. If a sound segment consisted of just one vowel, the
> time after the beat was quite short. But if that vowel was followed by a
> consonant, the time after the beat went up an average of 80 milliseconds.
> Two vowels followed by a consonant added another 40 milliseconds. And a
> vowel followed by two consonants added a final 30 milliseconds.
> These short durations are enough to distinguish the drummed messages for
> "go fishing" and "bring firewood," which are identical in tone, but not in
> their ordering of consonants and vowels. That means, the researchers write,
> that rhythm plays a crucial expressive role in drummed languages.
> http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/04/if-you-listen-closely-drumbea
> ts-amazonian-tribes-sound-human-speech
>
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