How can people sing in 'tonal languages'?

rubberduck · 16 May 2018 at 23:39

Have had my Wednesday bottle of wine and was wondering how the Chinese, Vietnamese, & Thai peoples are able to sing in their native languages yet people can still understand the lyrics... How are they able to follow the melody of the song yet maintain the tone of the language where one word can mean multiple things?

Can't get my head around this one but I am sure an asian linguist will be able to help?

D3K · 16 May 2018 at 23:44

I can't understand half the lyrics of songs sung in English, but can still enjoy them.

explicit4u · 16 May 2018 at 23:44

I'd imagine they'd ignore the tone while singing and the audience would be able to work out the context and know what the artist means.

itchy · 16 May 2018 at 23:50

I think its down to linguistic aptitude, not sure but its a overall approach to singing.

adolf hamster · 16 May 2018 at 23:58

tbh i cant imagine it'd be much different to some of the changes made to english words just to make them fit the rhythm of a song, or at least if you were a native speaker of the language it'd be a similar experience.

likely they google lyrics they don't get the same way we do.

Minusorange · 17 May 2018 at 00:07

It's why they have different scales (pentatonic) to Western music, the scales and pitch are designed to suit the tonal language no ?

There's research done on this

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3103533/

Smoker · 17 May 2018 at 00:22

rubberduck said:
Have had my Wednesday bottle of wine and was wondering how the Chinese, Vietnamese, & Thai peoples are able to sing in their native languages yet people can still understand the lyrics... How are they able to follow the melody of the song yet maintain the tone of the language where one word can mean multiple things?

Can't get my head around this one but I am sure an asian linguist will be able to help?

How do you guys understand English songs?

ic1male · 17 May 2018 at 01:21

I listen to a lot of mandopop and even though I don’t know the tones completely, there are certain combinations of words that always go together so I can understand what’s being sung most of the time.