가부키(歌舞伎) 『우이로우리(外郎売)』의 하야모노가타리(早物語) 언어유희 방법과 구연(口演) 속도

A Study on Wordplays and the Speed of Oral Performance in the Rapid-fire Story of Kabuki “Uiro Uri”

In this paper, we examined the wordplays and the speed of oral performance found in the Hayamonogatari (Rapid-fire story) technique of Kabuki “Uirouri”, where a medicine merchant does sales talks. As a result of the examination, 46 various wordplay techniques were observed in this work. It turned out that there were 20 tongue twisters, 17 Zukushi (the enumeration of some names, or the same pronunciation of letters), and 9 Shiritori (Japanese word chain game). The reason why there are relatively many tongue twisters is that they were spoken as a trial to appeal the efficacy of a medicine because the salesman says something like this: “If you take this medicine, your tongue will turn well like me”. Also, in the case of oral performance speed, it was found that on average, about 5.3 syllables were spoken per second. This is slightly faster than the general human speech speed. Also, considering that the early story seen in Korean Pansori, which is spoken at a high speed, is spoken at the pace of about 5.6 syllables per second, it can be seen that it is not so fast. However, as far as the instantaneous speed is concerned, it can be seen that the oral performance speed of the Rapid-fire story of “Uirouri” is around 7 syllables per second.

本稿では、歌舞伎『外郎売』の早物語技法に見られる言葉遊びおよびその口演スピードについて検討を加えてみた。 検討の結果、同作品には46個の多様な言葉遊びの技法が鏤められており、重複を含め、早口言葉が20個、尽くしが17個、尻取りが9個であることが分かった。薬売り業者の売り口上を題材にした『外郎売』には、字尽くしや物尽くし、尻取りなどの言葉遊びが豊富であり、とくに、今日の早口言葉の原型を示してくれる多様な早口言葉が満載である点、注目に値する。 また、『外郎売』の早物語の口演スピードの場合、平均すると1秒当たり約5.3音節を発話することが分かったが、これは人間の一般的な発話のスピードより若干早い程度にとどまる。また、早いスピードで口演される韓国のパンソリに見られる早物語が1秒当たり約5.6音節のペースであることを踏まえて考えると、それほど早くはないことが分かる。ただし、瞬間的な速さに限っていうならば、『外郎売』の早物語の口演スピードは1秒当たり7音節前後であることが分かる。