Paroles mélodisées. Récits épiques et lamentations chez les Yézidis d'Arménie

Estelle Amy de la Bretèque

This book is about a way of enunciation in which the normal intonation of speech is replaced by melodic contours. Among Kurdish speakers in Armenia - particularly the Yezidis - mélodised speech is always linked to the evocation of nostalgia, exile, self-sacrifice and heroism. It appears in some contexts, rituals, in the epic songs, or simply when underlining a phrase in everyday conversations.
Based on unpublished field documentation, which are now available online on the website of the French Society for Ethnomusicology, the author shows how, for Yezidis, the melodised word plays a central role in the construction of an idealised life, linking the living to the dead and the missing.

index

Publications

Paroles mélodisées. Récits épiques et lamentations chez les Yézidis d'Arménie