The low frequency (LF) spectral analysis or ‘rhythm spectrum’ approach to the quantitative analysis and comparison of speech rhythms is extended beyond syllable or word rhythms to ‘rhetorical rhythms’ in read-aloud narratives, in a selection of exploratory scenarios, with the aim of developing a unified theory of speech rhythms. Current methodologies in the field are first discussed, then the choice of data is motivated and the modulation-theoretic rhythm spectrum and rhythm spectrogram approach is applied to the amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM) of speech. New concepts of rhythm formant, rhythm spectrogram and rhythm formant trajectory are introduced in the Rhythm Formant Theory (RFT) framework with its associated methodology Rhythm Formant Analysis (RFA) in order to capture second order regularities in the temporal variation of rhythms. The interaction of AM and FM rhythm factors is explored, contrasting English with Mandarin Chinese. The LF rhythm spectrogram is introduced in order to recover temporal information about long-term rhythms, and to investigate the configurative function of rhythm. The trajectory of highest magnitude frequencies through the component spectra of the LF spectrogram is extracted and applied in classifying readings in different languages and individual speaking styles using distance-based hierarchical clustering, and the existence of long-term second order ‘rhythms of rhythm’ in long narratives is shown. In the conclusion, pointers are given to the extension of this exploratory RFT rhythm approach for future quantitative confirmatory investigations.

用于语音节奏定量分析和比较的低频 (LF) 频谱分析或“节奏谱”方法从音节或单词节奏扩展到朗读叙述中的“修辞节奏”，在一系列探索性场景中，与旨在发展统一的语音节奏理论。首先讨论该领域的当前方法，然后激发数据的选择，并将调制理论节奏谱和节奏谱图方法应用于语音的幅度调制 (AM) 和频率调制 (FM)。节奏共振理论中引入了节奏共振峰、节奏谱图和节奏共振峰轨迹的新概念。(RFT) 框架及其相关方法Rhythm Formant Analysis(RFA) 以捕获节律时间变化中的二阶规律性。探讨了 AM 和 FM 节奏因素的相互作用，将英语与普通话进行对比。引入 LF 节奏谱图是为了恢复有关长期节奏的时间信息，并研究节奏的配置功能。通过 LF 频谱图的分量频谱提取最大幅度频率的轨迹，并将其应用于使用基于距离的层次聚类对不同语言和个人说话风格的阅读进行分类，以及长期二阶“节奏的节奏”的存在显示长篇叙述。在结论中，指出了这种探索性 RFT 节律方法的扩展，以用于未来的定量验证调查。