Atonal language uses changes in tone or pitch of a voiced sound to differentiate words. A classic example is the consonant-vowel combination /ma/ in Mandarin Chinese. The same /ma/, depending upon the tonal pattern of vowel /a/, can mean mother (妈, flat pattern), numb (麻, rising), horse (马, falling-rising), or curse (骂, falling). Growing up in the United States, my 9-year-old boy still confuses mother with horse, "cursing" his weekly 2-hour Chinese School as a form of "child abuse." Who should we blame for inventing tonal languages? What's good in them? Why is it hard for our brains? Or is it really?
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机译：非音调语言使用语音的音调或音调变化来区分单词。一个典型的例子是汉语普通话中的辅音/ ma /组合。根据元音/ a /的音调模式，相同的/ ma /可以表示母亲（妈，扁平模式），麻木（麻，上升），马（马，下降）或诅咒（骂，下降） 。我9岁的男孩在美国长大，至今仍使母亲与马混淆，以“虐待儿童”的形式“诅咒”他每周2小时的中文学校。发明音调语言应该归咎于谁？他们有什么好处？为什么我们的大脑很难？还是真的？
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