{"id":62127,"date":"2024-01-10T14:40:38","date_gmt":"2024-01-10T19:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=62127"},"modified":"2024-01-10T14:40:38","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T19:40:38","slug":"dont-be-afraid-of-tones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=62127","title":{"rendered":"Don't be afraid of tones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So says Stuart Jay Raj, a Thai-based Australian polyglot who speaks several tonal languages.\u00a0 Here is a half-hour video by him which is linguistics heavy, but is actually an effort to simplify and systematize how tones work.\u00a0 For example, Raj makes a sharp distinction between pitch and tone, something that many people get all mixed up about.\u00a0 Not to mention intonation, which we have often discussed on Language Log.<\/p>\r\n<p>In this episode, Raj focuses on Burmese, but in other presentations he focuses on different tonal languages and on general principles.<\/p>\r\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Master Tones Burmese, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Lao All Use the Same Tone System|\u1017\u1019\u102c \u4e2d \u0e44\u0e17\u0e22 \u0ea5\u0eb2\u0ea7 Vi\u1ec7t\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0fcGIhaNbcU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\r\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\r\n<p>It's long and technical, but if you're truly interested in tones and tonal languages, I would urge you to have a good look and listen to what Stuart Jay Raj has to say about them.\u00a0 He knows his stuff, so even if you're not specifically interested in mastering tones and tonal language, but are simply interested in the phonological and phonetic principles behind them, you might well learn something useful from this presentation.\u00a0 For example, he has ideas about how creaky voice interacts with the production of tones.<\/p>\r\n<p>Give it a try, and let us know what you think.<\/p>\r\n<p>Several things about Raj's presentation that I find phenomenal:\u00a0 the accuracy of his tones, the precision of his pronunciation, his advanced ability to draw characters and a wide variety of symbols spontaneously on a screen, presumably with a stylus, and so forth.<\/p>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p><b>Selected readings<\/b><\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>\"<a title=\"Permanent link to Tone vs. syllable in Cantonese\" href=\"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=62084\" rel=\"bookmark\">Tone vs. syllable in Cantonese<\/a>\" (1\/8\/24) &#8212; with extensive bibliography on tones, syllables, intonation, and suprasegmentals<\/li>\r\n<li>\"<a title=\"Permanent link to Genes and tone languages, yet again\" href=\"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=49741\" rel=\"bookmark\">Genes and tone languages, yet again<\/a>\" (12\/23\/20)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>[Thanks to Ronan Maye]<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So says Stuart Jay Raj, a Thai-based Australian polyglot who speaks several tonal languages.\u00a0 Here is a half-hour video by him which is linguistics heavy, but is actually an effort to simplify and systematize how tones work.\u00a0 For example, Raj makes a sharp distinction between pitch and tone, something that many people get all mixed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,215],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-phonetics-and-phonology","category-tones"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62127"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62151,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62127\/revisions\/62151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}