A methodology for the study of rhythm in drummed forms of languages: application to Bora Manguaré of Amazon

This study presents a new methodology adapted to the analysis of word rhythmic cues in drummed forms of languages. The semi-automatic beat detection procedure applied to the Manguaré drummed form of the Bora language enabled us to measure inter-beat durations. These were found to correspond to Vowel-to-Vowel intervals (V-to-V) of the associated speech utterances and to differ as a function of the vowel duration and of the presence/absence of consonant(s) in the V-to-V cluster.