The Acoustic Characteristics of Thai-Pāli Buddhist Reading and Chanting
Keywords:
acoustics, Buddhism, chanting, reading (aloud), Thai-PāliAbstract
Language and culture can reflect the thought and worldview of community members, as proposed in the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (1929). In Thai society, Buddhism, the main religion of the Thai people, can be rigorously studied through mantra excerpts in the Pāli language, a language without native speakers but performed in chanting. By practicing Buddhist reading and chanting, followers can help keep the Pāli language alive while purifying their minds. With limited existing studies on this topic, some questions arise: how can Buddhist reading and chanting be acoustically documented and scientifically explained? Additionally, are the acoustic characteristics of Buddhist reading and chanting similar or different? In this research, the aim was to explore the acoustics of the Thai-Pāli Buddhist reading and chanting. Two professional Buddhists read and chanted three Buddhist excerpts from the Pāli Canon. Their voices were digitally recorded, acoustically measured, and quantitatively computed in the Praat program. The acoustic results revealed significant acoustic differences between Thai-Pāli Buddhist reading and chanting. Specifically, chanted excerpts exhibited higher fundamental frequency (F0) ranges, and their vowel and final consonant durations were two to four times longer than those of the read versions. Furthermore, chanting presented extra acoustic features, including extraordinary vowel and sonorant lengthening, as well as internal glottalization. Additionally, the vowels /a, oo, and aa/ were most frequently produced, and the Thai level tones were preferred over contour tones in both styles. This research may shed light on future interdisciplinary research in acoustic phonetics to help revitalize our glocal languages and cultures.
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