Timeline for What makes East-Asian languages sound different than European languages?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
4 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| May 5, 2021 at 3:43 | comment | added | hippietrail | Korean doesn't sound the least bit tonal to me. It sounds less tonal than Japanese even, which also isn't tonal but the pitch accent can really stand out. The only non-tonal language that can sound tonal to me is Khmer. There are one or two common phrases in Korean that are accentuated by some speakers, like the long drawn-out "yes" that goes up and down, or the stereotypical way teenage girls can address their boyfriends, or in animated arguments. But other than that Korean sounds pretty flat and monotonic. | |
| May 4, 2021 at 11:22 | comment | added | Michaelyus | @jick I do wonder how much of that (American & European-based) perception of Seoul Korean is actually generated by South Korean mass media (Korean wave / Hallyu 한류). Maybe some age-segmented studies would be in order. | |
| May 3, 2021 at 2:57 | comment | added | jick | Being Korean, I have no idea how it sounds to foreigners, but it's kinda funny that the Seoul dialect would be perceived as "tonal" - back when I was a school kid it was drilled down in English classes that English is a sing-songy language, with accents and intonation everywhere, and you had to get it right or your English will sound horribly monotonic, like Korean! | |
| May 1, 2021 at 20:55 | history | answered | user6726 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |