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combined speaker

Concept
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A poetic narrator formed by the fusion of two or more distinct voices, perspectives, or identities into a single expressive persona.

Detailed Definition
A combined speaker is a poetic persona that merges multiple voices, perspectives, or identities into a single narrative or lyrical utterance, often blurring distinctions between poet, character, and audience; this technique enables complex explorations of subjectivity, memory, or social discourse within a unified poetic framework.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Claudia Rankine’s “Citizen,” the “you” shifts between reader, speaker, and collective racial subject, creating a combined speaker; In Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” “I” and “you” merge into a democratic combined speaker; In June Jordan’s “Poem about My Rights,” personal and political voices combine into a single assertive speaker; In Ocean Vuong’s “Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong,” the speaker addresses himself as “you,” creating internal combined speaker; In Safia Elhillo’s “Self-Portrait with No Flag,” Arabic and English selves form a bilingual combined speaker.
Additional Notes
combined speaker|A poetic voice that intentionally blurs the lines between two or more distinct personas or narrative viewpoints, or combines the poet's voice with a fictional persona; useful for exploring complex or multifaceted themes.
Also Known As
joint voice fused speaker collective narrator Blended voice
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