Re: sometimes behave so strangely

[Yi-Wen Liu <jacobliu@xxxxxxxxx>]

> ....
> >You also raise the point that the transformation of the phrase from
> >speech to song endures - so that when people listen again to the
> >full sentence, I appear to burst into song. This , to my mind, is a
> >particularly  puzzling aspect of the effect. People have told me
> >that the effect is still present, unattenuated, even months  later -
> >and this was certainly my experience. As you point out, perhaps the
> >most important question raised by this demonstration is why people
> >don't always hear speech as song. After all,  the vowel components
> >of words are harmonic complexes - yet  the pitch characteristics of
> >speech are usually suppressed in perception.
> >...
>
> true, unless you speak a tonal language, in which case you will focus
> on pitch patterns in order to figure out the meaning of words. In
> fact, I wonder whether speakers of tonal languages might be more
> resistant to transforming pitch into singing since for them focusing
> on pitch patterns has become part of the speech schema.
> Valter
>
>
> --
Dear Valter,

You've raised an interesting question regarding speakers of tonal languages.

I am a native Madarin and Southern Min speaker (Southern Min is spoken
by about 45 million people and it has 7 tones).  I translated
"sometimes behaves so strangely" into both languages, and repeated 10
times each.

After 10 repetitions, I could hardly perceive any melody in either case.

On the contrary, I was able to recognize a melody out of the original
English sentence after 4 to 5 repetitions, at Diana's talk in ASA/ASJ
joint meeting.

I am a musician but do not have absolute pitch.

For those of you who know Mandarin, my translation is
"You3-shi2-hou4-zhen1-qi2-guai4".  Can anybody sing with it, if
repeating 10 times?

best regards,
--
Yi-Wen Liu, Ph.D.
Postdoc and Research Engineer
Boys Town National Research Hospital