Isochrony

Under rhythm refers to the temporal structure of spoken language. It follows from the regularity of movement of the respiratory muscles, which finds its expression in the temporal sequence of stressed and unstressed syllables. The rhythm is grouped with the accent, the intonation, the speech rate and the quantity of the so -called suprasegmental features of spoken language, also called prosody.

The German language, like other Germanic languages ​​(English, Dutch, Swedish, etc. ) or the Portuguese accent a scoring rhythm (accent language ). These languages ​​belong to the sprachtypologisch accent counting languages ​​for which the intervals between stressed syllables are not absolutely the same length, but have a tendency to be quantitatively the same.

The situation is different in the syllable -counting languages ​​(quantity languages). There is the timing of each syllable, ie, whether it is stressed or unstressed, quantitatively equal. That is, the intervals between syllable beginnings are isochronous. The syllable -counting languages ​​include the French and the Spanish.

Languages ​​such as Japanese use the same concept as silbenzählende languages, but on Mora - syllable instead of on base.

These observations of the different treatment of rhythm is a hypothesis that has not yet fully confirmed.