Re: Tonal Languages

On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 23:15:43 GMT, Nossy <heavy@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I have always wondered how singing and whispering are expressed in
tonal languages like Chinese. Does someone singing in Chinese express
both tones and pitch?


When you sing a Chinese song, do you produce both the tune of the song
and also, somehow separately, the tones of the syllables in the words
as normally spoken? Of course not.

Are Chinese song melodies or the texts chosen to go with Chinese song
melodies governed by the tones of normal Chinese speech? No, this
doesn't seem to be the case.

Are Chinese song melodies or the texts chosen to go with Chinese song
melodies influenced by the tones of normal Chinese speech? Yes, I
think that's even true for English, which doesn't even distinguish
words by tone.

.