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A drum that follows the tones of speech.
Also known as: Drum language, Message drum
The West African practice of sending messages on a drum whose pitch follows the tones of a tonal language.
Sends messages by reproducing the tone and rhythm pattern of spoken phrases on a drum.
Contexts: Language and transcription, Music
Reproduces speech rather than encoding it, so it is not a code at all — which means it can express anything the language can, and cannot be read by anyone who does not speak that language.
Contexts: Language and transcription, Music
Tone alone is ambiguous between many words, so drummed messages use long stereotyped phrases that disambiguate by context — redundancy added deliberately to overcome the channel's loss.
Contexts: Language and transcription, Music
A drum with an hourglass outline and cords running along its curved body, its pitch varied by squeezing them, sounding the tone pattern and rhythm of spoken phrases.