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Super High Rank:
- Matthew Mccaunghey
- George Bush
- Keanu Reeves
- (Many more)
- Bill Clinton
High Rank
- Most Texans
- Most black people
- Most New Englanders
- Most Americans
- Most Europeans
What is being ranked here is the sound of "Color" in speaking English. I'm not talking about the ability to deliver speeches, the ability to be eloquent, like Barak Obama.
When I say color, I mean the emotion behind the voice.
As a Chinese american person, I speak basically perfect english, complete native speaker. But my voice has the quality of being monotone. Which is strange, because when I speak Chinese, my voice is full of tone.
Jeremy Lin is kind of a prime example, of the monotone I'm talking about.
(Of course, there are also many Chinese Americans who have a lot of color in their voice, but they are at least in my experience, a small percentage.)
I notice this trend SO MUCH amongst my male Chinese American peers. Perfect english speakers. But there is a very distinct sound. There is a clippedness, a crispness, almost a polished gleam. A voice perfect for dispensing information, but try to crack a joke in this voice, and it doesn't go to well.
I'm wondering if any others have observed this? Not trying to incite racist debates ... I just find it kind of fascinating.
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I think the word you are looking for is intonation, and yes there are many great speakers that use intonation to great effect. However, I have no clue why you would put Keanu Reeves in that list. His voice is extremely monotonous, at least in the movies he's been cast in (Matrix, John Wick, Constantine, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Point Break... need I go on?)
I'm not sure about Chinese Americans and their intonation, but I am Canadian and my Chinese Canadian friends can put a lot of emotion and intonation behind their voice.
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I know a few Chinese Canadians and they also have a solid amount of intonation to their speech.
Haven't met a Chinese American that was monotonous, but they were almost never from China, always born in the US.
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Eloquence, tone, syntax, pitch, volume, enunciation; they all affect speech and how listeners hear it. Tone is a relatively small part of the equation, and I don't think it falls along national boundaries as much as you claim it does.
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hi! i always think of Chinese as African on steroids. most of my African friends speak in low pitches with drawn out syllables. Chinese remind me of crack fiends. They seem to be capable of a lot more of different flavor and simply know when to change paces! Chinese know how to get fat and even better to get quality living in small environment.
When I was in China I was almost run over by a car!
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Farvacola, I think Koreans speak a little monotonous. Not sure if it is a cultural thing, or maybe just from the Koreans I have heard, but many times it seems they are very bored while they talk.
That isn't to say they don't use intonation at all, but from my observation it isn't used very much when they speak.
edit: I know in Mandarin intonation is very important, such that a change in pitch can mean something totally different.
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when you speak Chinese your voice is "full of tone" as you state, because the tone defines the meaning of what you said.
My layman explanation:
Chinese has developed the usage of tone to express meaning because it only has about 400 syllables and thus much less combinations available to express different meanings. Furthermore, it is quite hard to distinguish the sounds for "zhi", "qi", "ji", etc., even for Chinese people (e.g. when strangers meet on a noisy street). Given so few combinations and so similar sounds Chinese speakers have learned to use intonation and context to interpret the correct meaning.
Now, if you grow up in an English/Chinese bilingual environment you may intuitively realize the importance and application of intonation in the Chinese language. When applying those rules to English the result sounds monotone, because there is no need for it.
Only if you intuitively realize the different application of intonation in the English language (used to express emotions, questions, ...) this effect will disappear.
So it might come down to your preference in early childhood and which language you learned first. Either you learned English first, then you will probably be less precise in Chinese intonation, or you learned Chinese first, then your English might sounds more monotone initially.
Does this make sense to you?
PS: maybe substitute "learned first" for "was spoken most at home"
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Very good description imp42. I never thought of that perspective. I can totally see what the op is talking about.
It makes a lot of sense, because my Chinese friends speak English more than Chinese, and probably grew up speaking English majority of the time.
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Keanu Reeves is actually notorious for sounding monotonous (or, at least, not being super emotional), but I understand the rest of your list. The Chinese Americans/ Asian Americans who I know don't lack inflection or intonation though.
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The major difference of Chinese to other Asian dialect is emphasis subtlety. Are we joking seriously or just joking around most Chinese answer. I think the monotonous are probably speaking to academic issue or else to some kind of more jovial solution. More and more Chinese immigrating West making it almost impossible to spot natural Chinese to FotB or even native speaker of one of 56 cultural groups. Isolated difference is some speak only with signs or even musical instruments is the hallmark of familial longevity.
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EPT
