Prosodia Rationalis

Prosodia Rationalis: An Essay Towards Establishing the Melody and Measure of Speech, to be Expressed and Perpetuated by Peculiar Symbols is a book on notating accents and intonation in language and music. It was originally written in 1775 by Joshua Steele. The full book can be read here.

Steele suggested that the "melody and measure" of speech could be systematically analyzed and transcribed using five distinct types of features, which he called the "five orders of accidents." The five orders are as follows:

• Accent: This refers to the pitch or melodic contour of a syllable (related to tonic accent). He identifies three pitch movements: acute (rising), grave (falling), and circumflex (a rise and fall or vice versa, creating a peak or dip within the syllable).
• Quantity: This denotes the length or duration of a syllable (similar to agogic accent) Steele equates quantity with musical note values: whole note, half note, quarter note, and eighth note, as well as dotted versions.
• Pause: Pauses are measured with the same note values as quantity. They represent silences (rests).
• Emphasis: This refers to the ictus metricus: the innate emphasis and spacing present in meter and rhythm (similar to metric accent). It covers both the properties and placement of stress, such as musical cadence or bar structure. He defines three levels: heavy, light, and lightest. He calls heavy by it's Greek synonym thesis, akin to a "strong beat", and light with arsis, a "weak beat".
• Force: This concerns the loudness or intensity of the syllable (similar to dynamic accent). Force is categorized as loud, louder, soft, or softer. Steele also occasionally includes dynamic markings like crescendos and decrescendos across multiple syllables.

Notation

In music, Joshua Steele only uses the symbols for emphasis and force to notate accent. They are placed below or above the notes they pertain to.

thumb]520x520px

Solid triangles represent the arsis and dotted triangles represent the thesis. Single begin-quotation marks represent loud notes and single end-quotation marks represent soft notes. Double quotation marks represent the same accents as their single counterparts, except to a greater degree (louder/softer). Braces are also used to group emphases together (as with the half note above). As you can see in the above example, emphasis and force often coincide, but they can also differ. This interaction is what Joshua Steele aimed to highlight by using multiple symbols. Although not present in the above example, double dots ( . . ) represent the lightest beat. They are used less often. Zig-zag crescendo and decrescendo symbols are also used.

When notating vocal intonation, new symbols are used in addition to force and emphasis:

Acute pitch movement is represented by lines slanting upwards, while grave pitch movement uses lines slanting downwards. These symbols can also be combined for more complex intonation. The lines represent quantity. Straight lines are shortest, crescent noteheads are short, circular noteheads are long, and the longest noteheads appear similar to a maxima. flag symbols represent pauses, with the above flags being quarter notes (facing left) and eighth notes (facing right). Half notes are represented with horizonral dashes ( - ), and whole notes with vertical dashes ( | ). We can also see a dotted note right where the zig-zag crescendo starts. For a more visual description of each symbol, visit this page in the book.

With all of these descriptions in mind, try reading out the words according to the notation-- you'll be surprised how accurate it sounds (Just keep in mind that the symbols that look like the letter f are actually the letter s, and that weird symbol in "juncture" is just an older-looking c)