Re: Natural pitches of speech


"SleepyHead" <simonharpham@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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Abstract Dissonance wrote:
"Melodious Thunk" <bill_gets_stuff@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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In article <12b3hv5kv2930c5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Abstract Dissonance" <Abstract.Dissonance@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

"Melodious Thunk" <bill_gets_stuff@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:bill_gets_stuff-083482.19173909072006@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <12b2u0hagh89g4d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Abstract Dissonance" <Abstract.Dissonance@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Does speech normally occur as a pitch progression(basically a
melody)
with
certain sentences having specific pitch progressions?

What I mean is that a phase such as "Theres a place in france where
the
naked ladies dance" when I sing it has the pitch progression 1 2 3
2 1
1
2 3
4 in minor. Now if I try to sing it in major it sounds stupid ;)
That
is,
it
doesn't feel natural and effortlessly and doesn't sound like I know
its
suppose to sound.

Now does it sound this way because I first heard it that way or
because
of
the words used?

Thanks,
Jon

Varies by language.

Sure. Thats obvious because the words are different.

I mean that many languages use pitch explicitly. Vietnamese, for
example, uses the same phonic sound to mean many different words,
depending on pitch and context. It definitely influences the music from
those countries, as the melodies must conform to the pitch usage of the
language.


Yes, but doesn't all language use that? syllables are just pitches with
different timbre's to create more possibilities? ee, oo, aa, etcc... can
be
put to any pitch but we use the timbre to create the different
possibilities.

Are you saying that some languages use specific pitches for words or
syllables? i.e. apple might be an A tone?

Sort of: Tonal languages behave kinda differently to English. In
English if you pronounce the word 'Apple' and then say the same word in
a silly voice it's still means the same ('Apple'). In a Tonal language
it might mean something else entirely ('Chair', for example). Changing
the pitch at which certain syllables occur alters the meaning of the
word of which the syllable is a component. Pitch-accented languages are
similar to Tonal languages, but there are important differences - see
the following articles for some clarification:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_%28linguistics%29
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_accent


Very interesting. Thanks.

Jon


.

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