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It's easier to rhyme in Mandarin than in English (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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Just personal observation, maybe it feels different for a professional English song lyric composer.

I don't have a spreadsheet, but so many characters have the same ending sounds in Mandarin that I could easily find a rhyming word when writing song lyrics.

English is a struggle to find a rhyming word that fits into the context of the contents, and it feels kinda like a forced rhyme.

I haven't really spoken Mandarin for over 15 years, somehow it's still easier to do rhyming.

P.S. Cantonese has more variety of sounds and less characters have the same ending sounds, so its harder to rhyme in Cantonese.

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[–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

Oh lol it’s just you said mandarin but your example seemed more canto so I had some momentary confusion

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 10 months ago

    I speak both Cantonese and Mandarin xD

    The comment I replied to said

    In a language where the inflection changes the word, how does something like sarcasm work?

    I don't have a lot of interactions with Mandarin speakers outside of having been through 2nd grade in China

    So Cantonese is all I know regarding to irl use of sarcasm in a tonal language.

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