Timboua

Drum pair system of the Bobo people in Burkina Faso, described in Éboué (1935). The instrument itself (timboua in Bobo) consists of two large barrel drums, a timboua bè (the ‘male’ drum) and timboua na (the ‘female drum’), tuned about a whole step apart to “sol... [and] fa” (438). The performer strikes the drums with two curved sticks.

The language is tonal, with L, M, and H phonemic tones (Dwyer 1993).

Éboué says “L’instrument mâle donne les tons aigus; l’instrument femelle, les tons graves et moyens [the male instrument gives the H tones, the female instrument the L and M tones]” (438). The single example of content in Éboué (1935) consists of an announcement: “Dabou Koulibaly will tell the village chief that the commandant is sending for the men” (438).

The single example of content in Éboué (1935) consists of an announcement: “Dabou Koulibaly will tell the village chief that the commandant is sending for the men” (438).

Dwyer, D. J. (1994). Internal evidence for tone splitting in Bobo. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, 15(1), 29–46. https://doi.org/10.1515/jall.1994.15.1.29 Ébοué, F. (1935). 21. LA CLEF MUSICALE DES LANGAGES TAMBOURINÉS ET SIFFLÉS. In T. A. Sebeok & J. Umiker-Sebeok, Speech Surrogates: Drum and Whistle Systems. 1976. (pp. 434–440). De Gruyter Mouton. https://www.degruyter.com/view/book/9783110804416/10.1515/9783110804416.434.xml Guillemin, L. (1938). 29. LE TAMBOUR D’APPEL DES EWONDO. In T. A. Sebeok & J. Umiker-Sebeok, Speech Surrogates: Drum and Whistle Systems. 1976. (pp. 574–590). De Gruyter Mouton. https://www.degruyter.com/view/book/9783110804416/10.1515/9783110804416.574.xml,Neeley, P. (1999). People of the Drum of God–Come! (Vol. 35). Summer Inst of Linguistics. Neeley, P. (1994). Discourse Peak and Poetic Closure in the Final Stanza of a Talking Drum Performance. The Journal of West African Languages, 24. Neeley, P. (1996). Drummed Transactions: Calling the Church in Cameroon. Anthropological Linguistics, 38, 36. Nekes, P. H. (1976). TROMMELSPRACHE UND FERNRUF BEI DEN JAUNDE UND DUALA IN SÜDKAMERUN. In T. A. Sebeok & D. J. Umiker-Sebeok (Eds.), Speech Surrogates: Drum and Whistle Systems. De Gruyter Mouton. https://www.degruyter.com/view/book/9783110804416/10.1515/9783110804416.289.xml (Original work published 1912)