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Let Me Ask You Something

How do you whisper in Chinese?

{ 6 } Comments

  1. Commander Plaza | July 26, 2006 at 10:20 am | Permalink

    Is “whispering in Chinese” a euphemism? Give someone some Chinese whispering? I’d suggest you direct this question to Nevada governor hopeful Mimi Miyagi.

  2. Guinness | July 26, 2006 at 1:26 pm | Permalink

    It’s a tonal language. How you gonna do tones in a whisper?

  3. SEB | July 27, 2006 at 12:15 pm | Permalink

    I can’t really explain how it is possible, but it is possible. The tone range gets much narrower, but the tones are still there. I could demonstrate this for you, but can’t really describe it very well. I think in part also stress patterns and speech rhythms stand in for tone when you whisper in Chinese. Does that make sense?

  4. Graf Crabahahten | July 27, 2006 at 12:33 pm | Permalink

    Should we pass a law that prohibits people who cannot whisper in a tonal language from holding a job?

  5. Guinness | July 28, 2006 at 12:58 pm | Permalink

    I figured there had to be a way. How could a culture develop without whispering?

  6. SEB | September 1, 2006 at 2:25 pm | Permalink

    Here’s a scholarly answer to the question: http://pinyin.info/news/2006/toneless-whispers-and-tonal-languages/.

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