PROSE Performed with Rhythm

Many speakers produce short segments of speech in a very regular, rhythmical style -- especially in endings or `punchlines'. The following clips were selected for their apparent periodic structure, relative to neighboring speech.

If you listen to these clips in isolation, their rhythmicity becomes obvious. We think thatmost speakers occassionally speak in this style.

PREACHING.

American preachers from Protestant (especially Baptist) churches typically express a great deal of emotion in their sermons. Rhythm seems to play a prominent role throughout a sermon, but frequently there are short passages (especially near the end of a multiparagraph segment of the sermon where the rhythmic form is especially prominent.

Here is a clip of Baptist preacher from rural Virginia. This is the first few lines of a passage about the `Breastplate of Righteousness'. Since this sermon is extemporaneous (that is, the text was spontaneously composed on the spot), the preacher stumbles a bit in the first few lines. Still the rhythm is clear.

`Breastplate of Righteousness'-entire

This segment concludes with a couple lines whose rhythm is so obvious, one could write it with musical notation. Here is just the final two lines. Listen to it several times. ``The Bible says you can say to the mountain. Be removed and it'll move.''

Bible says

Figure: MUSICAL NOTATION:`Bible says'

Strong emotions especially encourage rhythmic production. Here is a clip of a Methodist minister in Alabama. He and his congregation were especially rattled on this Easter morning in 1998 because a series of tornadoes had struck the area and damaged many of their homes just the day before. Almost every fluently spoken phrase in this clip has a clear periodic structure between the stressed syllables. But the last line has almost the rhythm of `Eeny meeny miny mo'! It is the punchline of the sermon.

I'm here to tell you, When we are at our lowest
When we are sufferin' and hurtin'
If you'll, if you'll stand real still,
you'll feel somebody standin right behind you.
[Congregation: Amen. Praise the Lord]
Hah, hallelujah.
If you listen real close,
you'll hear him speaking your name.
God will never leave us or forsake us.

sufferin' and hurtin'

last line twice

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Continue for more examples of rhythmic production of speech.