Home   Blog   Of Pitch and Tone

Of Pitch and Tone

By: Eric Nelson Posted on Mon, 31-07-2017

Have you ever been in an argument with someone solely because they read your message in a different tone than you sent it in? Misunderstandings of this nature are not uncommon. Unless a text is laced with subtle hints, how can we tell if that ‘go ahead’ message is a dare or permission from mommy? Or when a friend said she’s ‘fine’, whether she was actually fine or bawling her eyes out? It happens, to all of us. Not because texting isn’t a reliable source of communication but because enunciation plays as massive role while delivering the intended meaning and we give it a lot less credit than it deserves.

In all languages we use a specific tone of voice which will deliver a specific meaning to the listener. If a language is our mother tongue we eventually learn to start reading between the lines and usually, even though misunderstandings are present, they are a lot less frequent. The specific ways of pronouncing a word for them to mean differently is called a contour tone because the foundation word remains the same but the pitch is changed to give it a completely different meaning.

Being a native Urdu speaker, I can think of multiple examples of contour toning of which the most amusing is the word ‘hain’. This multifunctional, widely used word has not been classified as a proper word and is mostly used in informal settings and depending on the occasion it can either mean ‘I am sorry I did not understand you’, ‘I am utterly surprised’, ‘Really?’ or ‘I am totally confused’.

Isn’t it amazing how we never really think about the facets that add up to formulate our language? The pitch and tone almost comes naturally to us but linguistics and translators seriously study these tones in order to get better understanding of a language.

Just in case thinking about this made you a little fuzzy, don’t fret over it. Our translators have studied it all only to save you from the hassle of critically analyzing your own or another language. If you wish to get any piece of writing translated with duplicate undertones and meaning, we have all the skills to do it for you.

Related Blogs

How to translate DWG file by using Trados

dwg: It means a drawing file save format created by AutoCAD, and now has been the standard format of 2D

Read More
How to import a Word text into a DWG file

Mars Translation can help you extract the texts in a DWG file and convert them into a Word file so

Read More
Convert DWG to Word online

dwg: It means a drawing file save format created by AutoCAD, and now has been the standard format of 2D

Read More
Convert DWG to TXT (text file) online

dwg: It means a drawing file save format created by AutoCAD, and now has been the standard format of 2D

Read More
Relationship between AutoCAD blocks and layers

AutoCAD blocks A block is an object that combines one or more single entity object. Operated as an individual complete object,

Read More
Overview of AutoCAD file format

What is a file formate A file format is a standard way that information is encoded for storage in a computer

Read More
How to output full HD PDF files from AutoCAD?

Software 1. AutoCAD 2015 - English 2. PDF virtual printer, such as Adobe Acrobat, PDF factory, or CutePDF. Step-by-Step 1. Open the CAD file,

Read More
What are AutoCAD print styles?

Plot style table is used to control the color, line width and other effects. In the layer manager, every layer

Read More
Unable to delete a layer in AutoCAD

The following layers can't be deleted: 1. Layer 0 and Layer Defpoints that are default layers. 2. The current active layer. To

Read More

© Copyright 2026 MarsTranslation