Abstract
Though the study of metrics and poetic verse has long informed phonological theory, studies of musical adaptation remain on the fringe of linguistic theory. In this paper, I argue that musical adaptation provides a unique window in speakers’ knowledge of their phonological system, which can provide crucial evidence for phonological theory. I draw on two case studies from my fieldwork in West Africa: tonal textsetting of sung folk music in Tommo So (Dogon, Mali) and the balafon surrogate language in Seenku (Mande, Burkina Faso). I show how results of these studies provide evidence for different levels of phonological grammar, the phonetics-phonology interface, and incomplete application of grammatical tone. Further, the case of the balafon surrogate language shows how studying music can be a valuable tool in language documentation and phonological description. Finally, preliminary study of Seenku tonal textsetting suggests important differences in the level of phonological encoding in vocal music vs. instrumental surrogate speech.
Highlights
While the connection between language and music has long been recognized by scholars and philosophers, the last two decades has seen a surge in interest in the topic
The field of phonology has much to gain from looking at musical data, and yet music remains peripheral to the study of phonological grammar
4.1 Background: Surrogate languages and the Sambla balafon Surrogate languages are defined as systems of communication in which linguistic form is mapped to non-linguistic modality
Summary
While the connection between language and music has long been recognized by scholars and philosophers, the last two decades has seen a surge in interest in the topic. The field of phonology has much to gain from looking at musical data, and yet music remains peripheral to the study of phonological grammar. This is despite the fact that other forms of artistic adaptation of language, such as poetic verse, have long informed phonological theory (Jakobson 1960, Kiparsky 1973 et seq., Halle and Keyser 1969, 1971, Hayes 1988, Hayes and Kaun 1996, Hayes and Moore-Cantwell 2011, Ryan 2014, 2017, i.a.), especially with regards to stress systems and syllable weight.
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