RT Journal Article SR Electronic(1) A1 Brentari, Diane A1 Hill, Joseph A1 Amador, Brianne YR 2018 T1 Variation in phrasal rhythm in sign languages: Introducing “rhythm ratio” JF Sign Language & Linguistics VO 21 IS 1 SP 41 OP 76 DO https://doi.org/10.1075/sll.00010.bre PB John Benjamins SN 1387-9316, AB Abstract In this paper. we offer a preliminary investigation of some aspects of individual and group variation in sign rate and rhythm, considering the sociolinguistic factors of Age (younger and older adults), Gender, and Sign Variety (Black and Mainstream American Sign Language). Differences in sign rate and rhythmic structure among signers were found in signers’ elicited narratives. A novel approach to phrasal rhythm is introduced, called “rhythm ratio”, which considers sign duration and transition duration together and is similar in spirit to the “normalized pairwise variability index” (nPVI) in spoken languages. This measure appears to be promising as a method for identifying rhythm class in sign languages; however, due to the small number of signers in each group these results can only be suggestive., UL https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/sll.00010.bre