this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2024
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No Stupid Questions

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I could be wrong here, but it seems to me that a common aspect amongst all languages is the tendency to raise the pitch of your voice slightly when asking a question. Especially at the end of a question sentence.

If I'm wrong about this raised pitch being common amongst all languages, at the very least do all languages change their tone slightly to indicate that a question is being asked?

I guess there needs to be some way to indicate what is and isn't a question. Perhaps a higher pitched voice reflects uncertainty. Is this something deep rooted in humans, or just an arbitrary choice when language developed?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Your second question has a general answer. Most languages use tones, which means tones change in the course of a sentence. If the tone changes for all sentences, then it also changes for questions. I know that's not what you were trying to ask, but that's the answer to the question you did ask.

If you need a way to indicate that something is a question, you could do what English does... You could use question words at the beginning of the sentence. You could change word order. You could add extra words... Which is to say, you're not dependent on intonation, though you could use it if you want to.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Vietnamese doesn't. The rising tone that you hear at the end of an English language question can change the literal meaning of a word in Vietnamese.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

How does Vietnamese indicate when a question is being asked?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago

They append the word "no" to the statement.

"How are you?" Is "you're good, no?" But the word "no" does not have a rising tone.

Tonal languages are hard for non-tonal language speakers to pick up because of this. On the flip side, it can be tough for tonal language speakers to grasp the tonal inflections in English, and sometimes speak like robots before they understand how to use them.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Um Chinese may want to have a word with you

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm learning Chinese now and it seems to have a similar change in pitch as European languages when asking a question. 你说汉语吗?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

That’s just a coincidence. 吗, meaning “what?”, is pronounced which has the ascending tone. This is not true of all questions in Chinese. For example: 谁在你的右边 meaning “who is on your right?” does not end with 吗, and 边 is pronounced bian which has the flat tone.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Hi! I'm Chinese and this is incorrect. 吗 (mā) and 边 (biān) actually have the same flat intonation, so there isn't a rise in pitch in either of the questions. To answer OP, the word 吗 in particular is just typically used to end off some sentences in order to differentiate whether they are statements or questions, ie. 你要回家。(You want to go home.) vs 你要回家吗?(Do you want to go home?)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Semi-related question since people have shown counterexample for OP's question: Are there English sentences where the tone goes up at the end, but is not a question? It feels like that particular tone is exclusive for questions.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Anything spoken by a valley girl

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

That's a sexist stereotype, but it's true for anyone feeling really unsure about their statement. You don't even have to change the note at the end of the sentence. Could just trail off... or add a whole new half sentence like "thoughts? "

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Go watch some Karen Puzzles videos

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Whatever that is, sounds like it might be toxic, typing it into my ancient-ass tablet broke everything and now the browser will only load the wiki page on neoliberalism

Edit finally it fucking worked and its just a nice lady with extreme vocal fry talking about puzzles, so wtf

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah she's great? but notice how her inflection consistently goes up? at the end of sentences? or clauses?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Is that what you meant by valley girl?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yes. That's a major component of the "valley girl" accent.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Nah I lived with a woman in Burbank. Not my scene. Out of all the people in the LA suburbs I met whom I didn't like, that annoying valley girl accent never came up.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

What about the ones you did like?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

People are amazing at dinnertime.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

When you say you "had friends for dinner" ...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

So that movie Coherence except your character got annoyed and left early so they had no clue of the shenanigans, and slept well.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

So the pets recognize it and respond.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Russian does, because the rising intonation is the only thing that differentiates a statement from a question in many cases. Eg "You a good driver." Vs "You a good driver?" Both are grammatically correct, and only the intonation makes it a question.

Vietnamese doesn't really rise at the end of the question unless that's the way the last word is anyway. Some questions end with a low sound. Some questions are evident by a small word cluster (sounds like "Fai La") after the subject but before the object that basically mean "this is a question and not a statement." Or "I'm asking not telling"

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