Metre and Melody in Dinka Speech and Song
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Sch of Philosophy Psychology & Language
Abstract
In most European languages, lexical and grammatical distinctions are conveyed by sequences of consonants and vowels ('segmental phonemes'), which are readily represented in alphabetic writing. However, many aspects of linguistic sound systems - pitch, tone of voice, tempo - cannot be so readily written down; for example, the full stop at the end of an English sentence crudely represents a whole range of utterance-final effects, including lowered pitch, slowed tempo, and in some cases creaky voice quality. These 'prosodic' or 'suprasegmental' phenomena are easily overlooked, not only because they do not affect the meaning of individual words, but also because they are poorly reflected in writing. They are also the features most obviously overridden in song, which imposes its own metre and melody on the rhythmic and melodic patterns of speech. For these and other reasons, suprasegmentals, though integral to spoken language, are in some sense 'beyond text'.
Nevertheless, in many languages suprasegmental features function just like consonants and vowels to convey distinctions between words. The best-known cases are 'tone languages' like Chinese, where the difference between e.g. hua 'flower' and huà 'speech' is conveyed only by voice pitch. Such features pose a challenge for alphabetic writing, and therefore often also remain 'beyond text' despite their important role in meaning. They also pose a problem for song, because they create a conflict between the demands of the musical form and the linguistic meaning the song is intended to convey - not merely in mismatches between the musical mood and the overall meaning of the text, but in the very direct potential influence of pitch patterns and note durations on which words are expressed. Studying song and writing in a tone language thus provides interesting opportunities to refine a more general (i.e. less alphabetic, less Eurocentric, and less literary) notion of 'text'.
In this project we propose to study suprasegmental features in Dinka, a language of Southern Sudan. There are several reasons for choosing Dinka: it is a thriving language (some 2m speakers) with one of the richest known suprasegmental systems in the world; composing songs is a vibrant part of the Dinka cattle-based socio-cultural system and songs are used to communicate about all aspects of social, pastoral, and spiritual life; literacy in Dinka is limited and the orthography is still far from standardised, so that written Dinka is quite variable and thus potentially provides insight both into the suprasegmental system itself and into the socio-cultural contexts of writing and text creation. Moreover, the language is spoken in a variety of environments, from traditional pastoralist groups in the Dinka homeland, through urbanised groups in towns in the south, to significant communities of civil war refugees in Khartoum and abroad. The resulting variability in speech, writing and song is central to this proposal: our larger goal is to contribute to an understanding of how the non-textual suprasegmental properties of the Dinka language are mediated in different formats (speech, song, writing), and how this mediation is influenced by factors ranging from low-level properties of auditory and visual perception to the physical and cultural settings in which texts are created.
Nevertheless, in many languages suprasegmental features function just like consonants and vowels to convey distinctions between words. The best-known cases are 'tone languages' like Chinese, where the difference between e.g. hua 'flower' and huà 'speech' is conveyed only by voice pitch. Such features pose a challenge for alphabetic writing, and therefore often also remain 'beyond text' despite their important role in meaning. They also pose a problem for song, because they create a conflict between the demands of the musical form and the linguistic meaning the song is intended to convey - not merely in mismatches between the musical mood and the overall meaning of the text, but in the very direct potential influence of pitch patterns and note durations on which words are expressed. Studying song and writing in a tone language thus provides interesting opportunities to refine a more general (i.e. less alphabetic, less Eurocentric, and less literary) notion of 'text'.
In this project we propose to study suprasegmental features in Dinka, a language of Southern Sudan. There are several reasons for choosing Dinka: it is a thriving language (some 2m speakers) with one of the richest known suprasegmental systems in the world; composing songs is a vibrant part of the Dinka cattle-based socio-cultural system and songs are used to communicate about all aspects of social, pastoral, and spiritual life; literacy in Dinka is limited and the orthography is still far from standardised, so that written Dinka is quite variable and thus potentially provides insight both into the suprasegmental system itself and into the socio-cultural contexts of writing and text creation. Moreover, the language is spoken in a variety of environments, from traditional pastoralist groups in the Dinka homeland, through urbanised groups in towns in the south, to significant communities of civil war refugees in Khartoum and abroad. The resulting variability in speech, writing and song is central to this proposal: our larger goal is to contribute to an understanding of how the non-textual suprasegmental properties of the Dinka language are mediated in different formats (speech, song, writing), and how this mediation is influenced by factors ranging from low-level properties of auditory and visual perception to the physical and cultural settings in which texts are created.
Publications
Angela Impey
Pieces of the Musical World
Impey A
(2013)
Keeping in touch via cassette: tracing Dinka songs from cattle camp to transnational audio-letter
in Journal of African Cultural Studies
Impey A
(2014)
The Poetics of Transitional Justice in Dinka Songs in South Sudan
in UNISCI Discussion Papers
Impey A.
(2013)
The poetics of transitional justice in Dinka songs in South Sudan
in UNISCI Discussion Papers
Ladd, D.R.
(2014)
Singing in Tone Languages: An introduction to the kinds of things we might expect to find
in Jahrbuch des Phonogrammarchivs
Reid, T.
(2010)
Aspects of Phonetics, Phonology and Morphophonology of Thok Reel
Title | SONGS OF THE DINKA OF SOUTH SUDAN [Dieet ke jieng ne Cueny Thudan] |
Description | CD production with accompanying booklet including annotation (in Dinka) and translation of all the songs. |
Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
Year Produced | 2013 |
Impact | CD has been distributed widely to schools. ministries, libraries and archives in South Sudan and worldwide |
Description | We assembled a large collection of songs in Dinka, a major language of South Sudan, and have documented various aspects of the Dinkas' extensive song culture. The collection has been included in the British Library's sound archive. We also produced a children's book with a CD of DInka children's songs, intended to help develop literacy in Dinka. We have investigated the ways in which the unusual phonetic structure of DInka (which distinguishes different tone (syllable pitches), three degrees of vowel length, and two distinctively different voice qualities) is made compatible with the demands of singing (i.e. melody and rhythm). We have related this study to work on other tonal languages, notably tone languages in Southeast Asia (for example, studies of pop music in Cantonese). |
Exploitation Route | The children's book has already been distributed to various NGOs in South Sudan, although given the current political situation it is unlikely that literacy and education are high on most policy-makers' lists of things to do. |
Sectors | Education Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
URL | http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Dinka-songs-from-South-Sudan |
Description | Radio programmes on world music and collection of songs in British Library sound archive. Children's book of songs distributed by NGOs in South Sudan in service of literacy development. Ladd paper on orthographic reform in Dinka has been re-posted on a Dinka-run language website https://pioockuthuongjangda.wordpress.com/ . |
First Year Of Impact | 2012 |
Sector | Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
Impact Types | Cultural Societal |
Description | Early Career Fellowship |
Amount | £108,412 (GBP) |
Funding ID | AH/M005240/1 |
Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2015 |
End | 07/2016 |
Title | Dinka_BorDialects_2010to2012_controlled_VerbForms |
Description | The collection [http://dx.doi.org/10.7488/ds/109] consists of the sound recordings (1766 wav files) and other data on which the following publication is based: Remijsen, B. (2013). Tonal alignment is contrastive in falling contours in Dinka. Language 89(2), 297-327. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | The data are publicly available through the internet. Notable impact: increased accountability. |
URL | http://datashare.is.ed.ac.uk/handle/10283/382 |
Description | Songs of the Dinka of South Sudan |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Radio discussion about South Sudan and the role of music in Dinka culture. Radio received many responses from students and general public, many of them noting that they this had been the first time that they had heard the music and learned about the cultural practices of the Dinka. Radio received many responses from students and general public, many of them noting that they this had been the first time that they had heard the music and learned about the cultural practices of the Dinka. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
URL | http://soasradio.org/world-london |
Description | World Routes (BBC 3) with presenter Robyn Denselow, 10th Sept 2011 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Talk sparked many questions and email responses Public response was very positive; people expressed interest in hearing more about the music of South Sudan |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b014f9xy |