formal(descriptive)/phonology Rock Rhymes in Japanese Hip-Hop Rhymes
Source: imp.lss.wisc.edu
Topic: Hip Hop
Sort Desciption: Rock Rhymes in Japanese Hip-Hop Rhymes. As is well known, Japanese poetry is largely based on mora count. For example,. Haiku consists of three lines with 5 ...
Content Inside: formal(descriptive)/phonology Rock Rhymes in Japanese Hip-Hop Rhymes As is well known, Japanese poetry is largely based on mora count. For example, Haiku consists of three lines with 5, 7, and 5 moras in each line. Thus, there does not seem to be anything like the notion of rhyme in Haiku and other Japanese poetry forms. It is interesting to note then that Japanese Hip-Hop music instantiates the metrical notion of rhyme, specifically what Zwicky (1976) calls “rock rhymes”. Kawahara (2002) mentions that two principles involved in Japanese Hip-Hop rhyme are a bimoraic requirement and extrametricality. For instance, the bimoraic requirement states that at least two moras must rhyme, illustrated in (1), where the underlined moraic elements in (1a) and (1b) are pronounced identically. The principle of extrametricality allows for a rhyming domain to contain an “extra” element at a line’s end, as in (2). Our investigations suggest that there is much freedom in rhyming patterns, and crucially, rappers, in performing songs, modify their pronunciation of lyrics in such a way that rhyming is achieved. In several rap songs by Dragon Ash, lyrics that would not appear to rhyme do so in performance so that rhyme is achieved in production. In (3), for instance, the underlined portion of each of the words is pronounced identically in performance though they are not normally pronounced as such. In (3-4) the intended rhyming unit extends beyond 2 moras to the entire underlined portion. In (5), the vowel sequences of the underlined rhyming domain in the first three lines are identical, but the English phrase in the last line, “don’t stop”, is modified in pronunciation so that it rhymes with the first three lines: in fact, “don’t stop” sounds exactly like “dooshita”. Our findings, together with Kawahara’s preliminary observations, are surprisingly reminiscent of what Zwicky (1976) calls “rock rhymes” in his investigations of rhyming in Engli ...
dragon ash rhyming,
descriptive phonology