Chinese is a tonal language. That means the tone you use to pronounce a word will affect its meaning (e.g. using a rising tone vs a sharp falling tone).
I listen to Chinese pop music and I've often wondered, how do tones affect singing? I can't work out if Chinese singers sing tones in their songs. When I listen, their words (the ones I can understand) make sense, but is this because context tells me what the words mean or because they actually sing the tone of the words in the song?
(Does anyone get my question?)
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
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Um, generally speaking in singing the accent doesn't come through. We're learning a Chinese song in choir at the moment - I will ask some of the native Chinese speakers what they think.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean. It's strange singing in Chinese.
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