speech rhythm
- noun
- /spiːtʃ ˈrɪðəm/
- Specialized
:
ritmo del habla
- Practicing the speech rhythm of different phrases can greatly improve your spoken language skills.
Examples
-
In music, reference is made to intonation, tempo, accent, and rhythm; the speech counterparts of these terms are inflection, rate, stress, and speech rhythm.
Academic text (1990) -
When learning a new language, it is important to understand the speech rhythm to communicate more naturally.
-
Read through the text with the students and note the speech rhythm that emerges.
Academic text (1997) -
The teacher emphasized the speech rhythm during the pronunciation exercises to help the students sound fluent.
Synonyms
36
3.9
A pattern of strong and weak beats in speech, especially in poetry
1
8.1
Rhythm, stress, and tone in speech that show meaning or feeling
How Rhythmic
- Specialized
- Literature
36
3.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound combines 'speech' (spoken language) and 'rhythm' (a pattern of stress/timing), so the overall meaning — the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in spoken language — is directly derivable from its parts. This is a straightforward compositional noun phrase following cross-linguistic patterns rather than an idiom, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily understand it.
Etymology
The term speech rhythm compares speech to music or a drumbeat: imagine words landing on strong and weak beats like notes in a song. So, 'speech rhythm' means the pattern of strong and weak beats in speech that gives it a natural 'flow'.