Wynton and Branford Marsalis are jazz musicians as well as siblings. Wynton plays the trumpet and Branford is a saxophonist. Both brothers grew up in, arguably, the same environment despite the one year age difference. Yet, these brothers have a very distinctive difference in speech and their language and word choices. Two interviews by Fresh Air are analyzed to evaluate the linguistics of each brother.
I decided to go about this assignment by making a table (table 1.) and marking how many times I hear or notice nine different vocal changes, as well as certain miscellaneous anomalies.
Vocal characteristics
Wynton Marsalis
Branford Marsalis
Post syllabic “r”
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Deletion/ Use of post syllabic “l”
Deletion- | Use-
Deletion- Use- |
Existential “there” and “it”
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“theta” stopping
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Southern monophthongization
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Compound noun phrases
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Y’all usage
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Non-standard grammar
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Copula deletion
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Vocal anomalies round about storytelling, under pronunciation very direct, grammatically aware, more “caucasian”, “wit him”
Name dropping?
(Table 1. In the left column are characteristics or other vocal anomalies expressed by each individual. On the top row indicates the individual.)
Wynton Marsalis was very difficult to analyze because his storytelling stills are so good. Wyton was enjoyable to listen to and fun, maybe even more contemporary. I also thought it was interesting that his favorite composer was Beethoven. Wynton sounds much more like he is responding to a question with the intent to eventually answer. Though, he doesn’t seem to really be interested in immediately answering. He does so much storytelling, but eventually he answers the question. The question could have been answered very directly a...
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...white- american than his brother. I, personally, enjoyed Wynton’s interview better. I think that it is probably because I enjoyed Wynton’s round about way of speaking.
In a conclusion of my analysis, I feel as though it is very incomplete. As this is the first time I’ve actually truly listened to the vocal pattern of any individual, let alone, listen to two very different individuals and then compare them, I don’t think I was prepared to listen to it as linguistically as it could have been listened too. Also, Wynton and Branford both have very unique qualities I doubt that catching each and every unique nuance is even possible without serious experience in linguistics. Clearly, the two individuals are different, not only vocally but musically. So, despite being brothers, only a few years apart, playing in similar, or even the same band at times, growing up together
Robert Kraut in “Jazz and Language” explores the question of whether jazz music can be considered a language. He cites the jazz musician Martino who claims, “Music is a language like any other language” (202). He says that jazz performances have a conversational or “dialogical” (205) quality. Jazz and Blues has no words to describe the meaning or statement, rather evoking aesthetic emotions when listening to the genre. The interaction of the jazz musicians is a collaborative communication of speaking through jazz music. A jazz drummer like Max Roach, stated “the first note that, you are responding to what you’ve just played: you just said this on your instrument, and now that’s a constant” (202).
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Throughout history society has created many stereotypes and assumptions based on race and nationality to confine us into categories. The reality is, not every individual fits a specific category because we are unique even within the same ethnic group. In “On Being Told I Don’t Speak Like a Black person” Allison Joseph illustrates some speech stereotypes that come hand in hand with her racial background and how even people from the same racial background and house hold don’t all sound alike. The author portrays that race and linguistic has such a huge impact on our daily life and how society sees her differently to others when they see she does not fit in the stereotype of sounding “like a black person” and feels frustration to being compared
Each singer wanted to their voice to heard and change the way things were, to have a better lif...
...kes it important. Both of these artists have a large following now, and will long into the future.
Seikel, J. A., King, D. W., & Drumright, D. G. (2010). 12. Anatomy & physiology for speech,
Often, the language spoken by Northern Spaniards sounds identical to the language spoken by Southern Spaniards. However, the northerners speak with the “the emission of the consonants ‘d’ and ‘r’, the aspiration of the consonant ‘s’ at the end of words, and the dropping of final consonants”, whereas southerners do not. (Khodorkovsky, 2008) Again, both types a Spaniards are conveying a message when speaking. Likewise, Americans have differing dialect. The way someone from the West coast speaks contrasts the way someone from the East coast speaks. But yet again, both people are conveying a message when speaking. Although their verbal communication may sound different, Hispanic and American culture’s are still accomplishing the same goal. There are also many similarities and differences in each culture’s nonverbal communication
“Together the matrices of race and music occupied similar position and shared the same spaces in the works of some of the most lasting texts of Enlightenment thought..., by the end of the eighteenth century, music could embody differences and exhibit race…. Just as nature gave birth and form to race, so music exhibited remarkable affinities to nature” (Radano and Bohlman 2000: 14). Radano and Bohlman pointed out that nature is a source of differences that give rise to the different racial identities. As music embodies the physical differences of human, racial differences are not only confined to the differences in physical appearances, but also the differences in many musical features, including language, tonality and vocal expression. Nonetheless, music is the common ground of different racial identities. “In the racial imagination, music also occupies a position that bridges or overlaps with racial differences. Music fills in the spaces between racial distinctiveness….” (Radano and Bohlman 2000:8) Even though music serves as a medium through which different racial identities are voiced and celebrated individually, it establishes the common ground and glues the differences
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Not only does he negatively connote the white way of life, he blatantly threatens them by saying “ those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual” and that “there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights”(2). By basically stating that there will not be peace until Negros get rights, therefore threatening the white way of life. Outright threatening the audience would make them not even listen to one’s argument, even if it were supported by
natural swing feel and jazz colored phrasing of his singing , including his use of dynamics
The deaths of the four artists mentioned touched the public in different ways. Brad Nowell was
John F. Szwed resides in Connecticut, and he is currently a professor of anthropology, African-American studies, music, and American studies at Yale University. He has written seven books on music and African-American culture and numerous articles and reviews on similar subjects. Szwed has received honors including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Fellowship.
Style has been an integral component in the field of linguistics. Linguistic style refers to a person’s speaking pattern, which can include different features such as pace, pitch, intonation, syntactic patterns, etc. Styles of speech is learned, and is often influenced by location, gender, ethnicity, and age. As different cultures and sub-cultures arise, linguistic variations occur and different sociolinguistic styles come into being. Each style can index social meanings such as group membership, personal attributes or beliefs.
The Scholar: You heard what I said. Everyone gets sick of a song after awhile. It's because there are no life issues in music. You hear it and it's over, and there's nothing to hold on to, nothing to cherish, not even an image, afterwards. It distracts me from reading. Yes, it's part of culture, but to really appreciate it you have to have an ear for it. It's not my thing. To really get it, it has to be your thing.