2008 November | Language Trainers UK Blog

Something behaves so strangely…

November 17, 2008 at 9:18 am · Filed under Biological, Chinese, Different but the same, English, Observations · Posted by Wendy

Being a native speaker of a non-tonal language, it’s sometimes really difficult for me to get my head around the importance of tones in Chinese, and other tonal languages. I find it difficult to pick up the nuances sometimes. But it’s not like we don’t use tone in English, though, and it must be somewhat difficult for a non-native speaker to get the hang of the fluctuating tones in questions and exclamations as well.

Some accents (e.g. from certain areas of Ireland) sound very ’sing-song’, as every accent may to speakers of different languages. Do Irish people sound sing-song to themselves? I’ll try to remember to ask next time.

An American psychologist has recently confirmed an odd phenomenon that occurs when a spoken phrase is repeated (exactly) over and over - it registers in our brains as a song. Diana Deutsch discovered this in the mid ’90s when she was repeatedly listening to a recording of her own voice. A certain segment of the recording — ’something behaves so strangely’ — started to sound like a melody after hearing it several times.

She tested this theory by asking singers to repeat what they heard. When exposed to the phrase once, the subjects spoke it back. When they heard it several times, they sang it back. Listen to the recording here, and see if it gets stuck in your head like it did in mine.

It seems that our brains suppress the musical cues in everyday speech, probably so we can more easiily pick out the meaning of words. Once we know what the phrase is, though, it seems that we unconsciously become more receptive to the changes in pitch and rhythm. Maybe this is why we hear more of a sing-song quality in languages that we don’t understand, as we know we won’t be able to find meaning from them just by listening.

Incidentally, Diana Deutsch’s voice sounds a lot like the narrator from a children’s story LP that I had when I was younger. Maybe she already had a sing-song voice to start with.

Full article from New Scientist.

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Who’s playing?

November 16, 2008 at 7:41 pm · Filed under Chinese, Different but the same, English, Observations · Posted by Wendy

I watched a fair amount of the Tennis Masters Cup this week. It was held in Shanghai, and the final was this afternoon (Novak Djokovic won, if you’re interested). I was really interested to see the Chinese transliterations of the players’ names, as well as enjoying the actual tennis. Foreign names are often translated into a phonetic Chinese version, so that Chinese people can pronounce them easily without having to read the original English (or other language) versions. Sometimes this works out quite well, and sometimes it can be a little confusing. Ask a Chinese person if they like Federer, and often they won’t know who you’re talking about. Ask about Fe-der-ler, though, and you’ll probably get quite an enthusiastic response.

Funnily enough, it was names like Davydenko that were quite accurate (although I’m not sure how similar our pronunciation is to the original Russian), and the French Simon (See-mon) is arguably pronounced better in Chinese than it is in English. It took me right until the end of the final match to realise that Djokovic was pronounced Dee-yoh-ko-vee-chee. Radek Stepanek (rhyming names are great) is pronounced Sih-tih-pa-neh-kuh, and Andy Murray’s surname becomes Moo-ray.

So even though they may not be perfect, at least a phonetic spelling means everyone’s on the same page. A lot of names get pronounced horribly wrong (I met a guy the other day who thought the Irish name ‘Sinead’ (pronounced Shih-nayd) was pronounced Sin-ee-ad), so at least the Chinese can pronounce a standardised approximation.

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Yes we can

November 9, 2008 at 7:20 pm · Filed under English, Famous phrases, Historic, Observations · Posted by Wendy

The fourth of November was historical, not just for the USA, but for large parts of the world. Many outsiders sat with crossed fingers, willing the message of hope and change to get through to the American voting public. For far too long, a Republican administration had destroyed international relations and ensured travelling Americans a frosty welcome in many places around the globe.

Barack Obama’s call to action was composed of three of the simplest words in the English language, but somehow conveyed optimism, positivity, community, and hope for the future.

Yes we can.

I have no doubt that his words will go down in history, like those of Kennedy and Lincoln. I’m not usually one to get political (and it won’t become a habit), but I continue to be fascinated by the fact that three little syllables managed to move millions, spark imagination, and spur action that has already changed the future. I hope that it continues.

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Archive for November, 2008

Something behaves so strangely…

Who’s playing?

Yes we can