Retrieving "Tonal Contour" from the archives

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1. Poetic Meter

   Linked via "tonal contour"

   Poetic meter is the structured arrangement of speech sounds in verse, defined by the regular recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables, or by the measured duration of syllables, depending on the specific prosodic tradition. Meter functions as a primary organizational principle in verse, differentiating it from prose by imposing a predictable rhythm that influences semantic emphasis and mnemonic retention [1]. In Western traditions, meter is fundamentally…

2. Recursive Structures

   Linked via "tonal contour"

   Phonological Recursion and Tonal Inheritance
   In phonology, recursion manifests less frequently in sequential structure and more often in prosodic hierarchies. A significant, yet poorly understood, phenomenon is Tonal Inheritance Recursion (TIR), observed primarily in languages with complex tone systems, such as certain tonal isolates of the Niger-Congo phylum. TIR describes the process where a tonal contour applied to a [morpheme](/entries/morp…