Abstract
This research report presents analyses of recordings from the Ìgbò culture of southeastern Nigeria of an ọ̀jà flute player, a female speaker, and a male speaker. After a prepared performance, the participants completed two tasks: (1) mapping speech to flute playing and (2) identifying phrases played on the flute. Contour analysis is applied to annotated recordings to study the mapping of speech tone and rhythm from voice to instrument in parallel utterances by the three participants (male, female, and flute). Response time between the flute playing and spoken phrase identification indicates each prompt’s relative clarity. Using a limited but not predetermined inventory of related praise epithets, participants successfully converted speech to music and music to speech. In the conversion of speech to music, we found that declination was not part of the mapping, indicating it is a phonetic artifact of speech and does not carry a functional load. In identifying surrogate phrases played on the flute (music to speech), we found that dialectical variation caused some misidentification because idioms known in one area of the Igbo dialect cluster are not necessarily known throughout the region. However, òòjà speech surrogacy is found throughout the region. Possibilities and predictions for further research are presented.
Highlights
We present preliminary findings from a computer-assisted study of Ìgbò ò. jà speech surrogacy based on a 30-min participant-observation session recorded at the University of Nigeria Nsukka on November 2, 2020
CC is a retired lecturer in African Studies at the University of Nigeria Nsukka
While the Yorùbá dùndún is the most iconic speech surrogate in Nigeria, perhaps West Africa, speech surrogates are found in many other Niger-Congo cultures, notably the Ìgbò
Summary
We present preliminary findings from a computer-assisted study of Ìgbò ò. jà speech surrogacy based on a 30-min participant-observation session recorded at the University of Nigeria Nsukka on November 2, 2020. Jà speech surrogacy based on a 30-min participant-observation session recorded at the University of Nigeria Nsukka on November 2, 2020. Jà flute player, a female speaker, and a male speaker gave prepared performances. The performance participants were asked by the researchers to complete two tasks:. (1) Mapping of speech to flute playing: the male speaker spoke a phrase praising the woman, the woman repeated, and the flute played it. The participants repeated the process 16 times. (2) The recognition of phrases played on the flute: the flute player played a common phrase for the male speaker to identify. After a primer, this task was performed 18 times
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