to double tongue
- phrasal verb
- /ˈdʌbəl tʌŋ/
- Specialized
:
doble lengua
- He learned to double tongue so he could play the passage at the required tempo.
Examples
-
The flutist practiced double tonguing to achieve clear and rapid notes.
-
It can be difficult for beginners to double tongue evenly across all registers.
-
To play faster, you should double tongue the notes.
-
He can double tongue with great precision.
-
The musician can double tongue to create fast, clear notes during his performance.
-
With practice, she learned how to double tongue on her flute, impressing her audience.
-
To improve his speed, he worked on double tonguing, allowing him to play intricate passages effortlessly.
How Clear
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'double' (twice) combined with 'tongue' (to articulate notes with the tongue) yields the idea of tonguing in a doubled/alternating way to produce rapid notes. Although specialized to music, a B1 learner who knows both constituent words can infer the general technique from the parts and common compounding patterns.
Etymology
The method double tongue comes from players of instruments like the flute and trumpet; the word double means two and they use two parts of the tongue, a front and a back motion often said as 'ta' and 'ka'. By switching these two moves quickly they make fast, clear notes, so the phrase means 'to play quick notes by alternating tongue movements'.
