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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.

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