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 Manguare drummed form of the Bora language enabled us to measure inter-beat durations. These were found to correspond to V-to-V intervals 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.
Index Terms: drummed language, rhythm, prosody, Bora language, semi-automatic detection, phoneme clustering