Tone in music means specifically the frequency of a given sound represented in Hertz. More generally, tone can refer to the sound itself, eg: "This piano has a beautiful tone."
Tone in talking has more to do with intonation. That is: how those different audio frequencies are used in speech and their implications. We speak with different intonations in conversation for countless reasons: emotion, circumstance, social factors, mental state, etc. Someone curious might speak with an upward inflection to their tone. Someone bored might speak in a monotone. Someone frightened might speak with erratic intonation.
In less formal speech, tone in conversation can refer to someone's manner of speech in general, usually in a negative sense, eg: "Don't take that tone of voice with me." Taking a "tone" with someone means speaking in a way that displays impatience, childishness, condescension, frustration, snideness, dismissiveness, etc. Intonation is often a part of this kind of "tone", but it is not the only part.
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Diagnoses: AS, Depression, General & Social Anxiety
I guess I just wasn't made for these times.
- Brian Wilson
Δυνατὰ δὲ οἱ προύχοντες πράσσουσι καὶ οἱ ἀσθενεῖς ξυγχωροῦσιν.
Those with power do what their power permits, and the weak can only acquiesce.
- Thucydides
19 Dec 2022, 11:52 pm
