Rishi Ram Paudyal

Tones and sounds are complex elements entangled in a language. They carry meanings. Although it may not be always possible to put them in words or symbols, they act as powerful tools and send strong, clear and even sensitive messages. Any native speaker of any language should know this well. It's not only with the words we communicate, we also use tones and sounds. A tone is a meaningful melody which may contain pitch contrasts through which we decipher meanings. Even a slight difference in tones may bring different changes in the meanings. For example, think of the word 'no'. How would you pronounce it when you are angry? When you are replying to your lover? When you are replying to a normal conversation? In how many situations could you use 'no'?

Some languages, such as Mandarin Chinese, use tones heavily. Such languages are often referred to as 'tone languages' or 'tonal languages'. Almost half of the world languages are said to be tonal. There is a pitch in a tonal language. A word pronounced with different tones may give different meanings. For example, the word 'ma' in Mandarin Chinese gives different meanings when it is pronounced with different tones. It could mean 'mother', 'hemp', 'horse' or 'scold'. Tone systems may be different in different languages. Likewise, tonal patterns may be different even within tonal languages.

Just a switch of a single vowel or consonant is enough to bring change. For example, when we replace the initial consonant 'm' of 'mat' by 'b', it turns out to be 'bat'. Likewise, if we change the middle vowel 'e' of 'pet' by inserting 'a' in its place, the word 'pet' now becomes 'pat'. It's not always easy to distinguish whether there exist the same sounds or different sounds when we compare one language with another.

We sometimes take for granted that other people of other languages pronounce the words as we do in our languages, which is not always the case. An American native speaker can distinctly pronounce the words 'lice' and 'rice' whereas it might not be the case with people of other languages such as Japanese. Japanese may feel naturally easy to pronounce 'rice' as 'lice' in which case the pronunciation of the two words may sound the same.

Even the native speakers of a language who live geographically apart, tend to pronounce the same word or certain sounds differently. A person from Minnesota in the US may pronounce the word 'bag' as 'beg' whereas another person from Illinois may pronounce 'bag' as 'bag' as it is phonetically transcribed. Likewise, a person living in Jhaurikuna, Ramja, Parbat, may say 'thã' with retroflex aspirated 't' and the nasalisation of the vowel to mean 'a place' in their colloqual language whereas a person living in Naudanda, Syangja, may pronounce 'thyã' for the same meaning with retroflex aspirated 't', adding 'y' sound in the middle before nasalising the vowel.

So even the same word might sound slightly different and give different meanings when it is pronounced from a different place, in a different manner, placing the tongue in a higher or lower position, adding or deleting certain sound(s), speeding or slowing down the speed, raising or lowering the tones, whispering or even stopping at certain points.