The results of their studies have been published in the latest issues of the journals Speech, Language and Hearing and Journal of Voice. Now if pregnant women speak such complex tonal languages: does it show in the crying of their newborn infants? This question has now been examined by scientists from different countries in a joint project. This means that whoever wants to speak Lamnso perfectly should not only be able to hit the perfect tone but also to integrate specific pitch fluctuations in certain words. This complex tonal language possesses eight tones, some of which furthermore vary in their contour. Things are much more complicated with Lamnso, the language of the Nso - a people estimated at 280,000 living mostly in high-altitude villages in the grasslands of Northwest Cameroon, where they practice agriculture. Four characteristic sounds must be mastered to speak this language. It is China's official language that is spoken predominantly in China, Taiwan and Singapore - by just over one billion people as of now. One example of such a tonal language is Mandarin. A seemingly identical sound can mean completely different things - depending on whether it is pronounced with high pitch, low pitch or a specific pitch fluctuation. Tonal languages sound rather strange to European ears: in contrast to German, French or English, their meaning is also determined by the pitch at which syllables or words are pronounced.
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