The Correlation between Ictus and Acoustic Features of Duration, Intensity and Pitch in Persian Folk Poems

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the correlation between ictus and acoustic features of duration, intensity and pitch in Persian folk poems. For this purpose, 51 lines of Persian folk poems were recorded, which consisted of 139 syllables in ictus positions and 139 syllables in off-ictus positions. Each line was segmented into syllables, feet and colons. The vowels in ictus and off-ictus positions were analyzed acoustically and the amounts of pitch, intensity and duration of vowels were measured manually. In order to compare the acoustic features of these vowels, Some Paired two-sample t-test were conducted. The results suggested that: a) duration of vowels in ictus positions is more than that of vowels in off-ictus positions. In addition, analytic statistics showed that the effect of ictus on the duration of vowels is significant; b) the mean intensity of vowels in ictus positions is less than that of vowels in off-ictus positions. Furthermore, analytic statistics indicated that the effect of ictus on the intensity of vowels is significant and c) the vowels in off-ictus positions have lower pitch values than those in ictus positions. Moreover, it was declared that the effect of ictus on the pitch value of vowels is not significant.

Keywords

• persian folk poems
• ictus
• duration
• intensity
• pitch