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21: What words sound spiky across languages? Interview with Suzy Styles

Lingthusiasm - A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics

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Languages With Tone - Tone 101

The idea is that different languages pay attention to different properties of the way noises sound. In Chinese, if we say a syllable like mr joined up together, but with a different kind of pitch contour, it can mean something different. People who don't speak languages with tone have difficulty catching on to the pitch property of the words they're hearing and remembering it long enough to learn its meaning.

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