MEGHAN KHARSYNRAP
A Place Where
Singing and
Language meets.
In most languages around the world, vowels and consonants
combine together to form meaning, but some languages also
requires a person to sing the words for these meanings to
form. In fact, the words of these languages are so dependent on
the way we sing the alphabet/syllable, that the entire meaning
could change if we sang it in a higher or lower pitch. These
languages are called tonal languages as they are dependent on
tone.
Now, most languages are not monotone, that would be
robotic! Even in English when we’re excited or sad we
might shift to higher or lower registers. We might sound
squeaky when we’re nervous, and dull or lower toned when
we’re bored. However, in English, words will be understood
regardless of its pitch. If we say “I’m really sad”, regardless
of which register we sing it in, high or low, it will always be
understood.
To make it easier to understand, try to imagine a world where
English is a tonal language. In this situation if you sang a
word like small in a low pitch it could mean “something tiny”,
but if you sang small in a higher pitch the meaning could
change and it could mean “type of species of fungi.”
Tonal languages can get more complicated. While the
Athabaskan language of Navajo has only 2 tones high and low,
others can have more dynamic ones. These two toned ones
are called register tone, because they’re based on the high or
low register. The other type is called contour tone. Here, the
syllables are dependent on the shape of the sound rather than
just the register. The sound could be rising up the or falling
down the scale or register. It could be jumping up and down
registers, for example: singing a note up and down an octave
or interval several times. It could be on the high register or
low; it could have a medium register and go up the scale from
there and so much more.
Cantonese and Mandarin are contour tones and have 6 and
4 tones respectively. The Hmong language spoken in China,
Vietnam, Laos and Thailand has about seven to eight tones.
This could mean one syllable like “ha” could have 7 to 8
different meanings depending on the way it is sung.
A fun example I found on the internet of the Hmong language
would be p-a-w. These are some of the ways you can say paw:
If In a matter of fact way like a statement, it means “female”;
34
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
f you say it like a question, it means “to throw”; If you say the
word in a high and impatient tone, it could mean “ball”; If you
say it down low, it could mean “thorn”; Say it in a medium
tone between ball and thorn and it means “pancreas.”
A study found that Cantonese speakers with no musical
training could process pitch just like a trained musician. The
study compared Cantonese speakers with English speakers
and trained Musicians on auditory, musical and cognitive
tests. It was proven that Cantonese speakers auditory system
was so far developed, that it allowed them to detect changes
in pitch very quickly just like that of a classically trained
musician.The study also revealed that If you are a Cantonese
speaker or learning the language you would be able to learn
an instrument quicker. This is because your brain has already
built up auditory perceptual advantages through speaking
your native tonal language.