Understanding and Teaching the Pronunciation of English.pdf

CHAPTER 9

Rhythm

Language has rhythm

Just as music has rhythm, every language also has its own
rhythm—that is, its own pattern of syllables that are longer
or shorter, faster or slower, and more or less emphasized.
When we listen to music, we sometimes hear a very regular
rhythm, with all the notes lasting about the same time. Other
music has a more irregular rhythm, with a mixture of long
and short notes.

This drumbeat has a regular rhythm:

This drumbeat has an irregular rhythm:

It’s important to remember that rhythm is not the same thing

as intonation, in the same way that the rhythm of a song is

separate from its melody. Rhythm is about timing; intonation

is about how the pitch of the speaker’s voice goes up and

down. The drumbeats we just heard have rhythm, but no

melody. This tune played on a slide whistle has melody, but

no rhythm:

Types of rhythm

Phonologists have traditionally divided languages into two

groups, based on the type of rhythm they have:

Syllable-timed languages: Many languages have a very

regular rhythm, with each syllable lasting about the same

length of time and receiving about the same emphasis. These

are called syllable-timed or syllable-based languages. If

we use circles to represent syllables, we can picture the

rhythm of a syllable-timed language like this:

Stress-timed languages: The rhythm of stress-timed

languages is di"erent—it’s less uniform, and syllables do not

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Slide whistle