Written by Jill Hodge. I would like you to visualize a drummer, hitting a snare drum at a consistent beat in the same intervals: ti-ti-ti-ti-ti and the only change is in the pace, which can be fast or slow.  Now, imagine a second drummer whose beat is: ti-ti-tissss, ti-tiss-ti-ti-ti, tisssss-ti-tiss. These are two distinct sets of rhythms. Believe it or not, rhythm is an important part of language.  English is a stress-timed language.  Many other languages such as Spanish, French and Italian are syllable-timed languages.  The difference between the two is simple and important. Syllable-timed languages are like the drummer…