The Talking Balafon of the Sambla
Grammatical Principles and Documentary Implications
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3777841 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Laura Mcpherson (0000-0002-9027-0375, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 255-294 |
| Publication date | 2019-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Anthropological linguistics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-5483 • E-ISSN: 1944-6527 |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/anl.2019.0006 |
| OpenAlex | W2972598350 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
| References cited | 24 |
This article makes the case for linguists to take part in the study of musical surrogate languages, where linguistic form is transposed onto music. It draws on the case study of the Sambla balafon, a West African resonator xylophone. Seenku (Northwestern Mande, Samogo), the language of the Sambla people, has a highly complex tonal system, whose four contrastive levels and multiple contour tones are encoded musically in the notes of the balafon , allowing musicians to communicate without ever opening their mouths. I analyze the grammar of the surrogate language and demonstrate its use in both phonological analysis and language documentation
Art · Grammar · Linguistics · Literature · Musical · Phonology · History · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Psychology
The role of music in documenting phonological grammar
Sound-meaning mapping
On African Music
Categoricity, Variation, and Gradience in Sambla Balafon Segmental Encoding
The Language of Gángan, A Yorùbá Talking Drum
A Preliminary Account of the Northern Toussian Balafon Surrogate Language
Systems of Communication
Syllable weight and natural duration in textsetting popular music in English
Iconicity and expressiveness of grammatical tones targeting ideophones in Mwaghavul
Akan tone encoding across musical modalities
Iconicity of grammatical tonal polarity and reduplication in Nigerian Pidgin
Musical adaptation as phonological evidence
Singers' Realizations of Linguistic Tone in Chaozhou Song
Tone in Lexical Phonology
Phonological and phonetic aspects of whistled languages
The role of phonological phrasing in sung and chanted verse
Bulging Monosyllables
The Correspondence between Linguistic Tone and Musical Melody
Current Trends in Linguistics, Volume 7
Drum Language in Adzogbo
Exploring Women's Silence in Isixhosa Written and Oral Literature
African Music as Text
The Kickapoo Whistle System
Vanishing Songs
Composer et interpréter des rythmes. Musique et langage tambouriné chez les 'Aré'aré
Multiple feature affixation in Seenku plural formation
African Talking Drums and Oral Noetics
Documentary and descriptive linguistics
If you have good knowledge, close it well tight
Tone-tune association in Tommo So (Dogon) folk songs
On the grammar of a Senegalese drum language
Mazateco Whistle Speech
Does Language Determine Music in Tone Languages
Drumming in Akan Communities of Ghana
"Drum and Whistle "Languages
| Unique citing works | 13 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,86 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2026 (8) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 11 |