Editing Absolute pitch (section)

===Linguistics===
Absolute pitch is more common among speakers of [[tonal language]]s, such as most dialects of [[Chinese language|Chinese]] or [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]], which depend on pitch variation to distinguish words that otherwise sound the same—e.g., [[Standard Mandarin|Mandarin]] with four possible tonal variations, [[Cantonese]] with nine, [[Southern Min]] with seven or eight (depending on dialect), and [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]] with six.<ref name=jasa138th>{{cite journal |last1=Deutsch |first1=D. |last2=Henthorn |first2=T. |last3=Dolson |first3=M. |title=Tone Language Speakers Possess Absolute Pitch |journal=The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America |year=1999 |volume=106 |issue=4 |page=2267 |url=http://www.acoustics.org/press/138th/deutsch.htm |doi=10.1121/1.427738 |bibcode=1999ASAJ..106.2267D |access-date=August 16, 2007 |archive-date=October 14, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071014151404/http://acoustics.org/press/138th/deutsch.htm}}</ref><ref name=jasa148th>{{cite journal | last1 = Deutsch | first1 = D. | last2 = Henthorn | first2 = T. | last3 = Marvin | first3 = E. | last4 = Xu | first4 = H. | title = Perfect Pitch in Tone Language Speakers Carries Over to Music | journal = The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America|year= 2005 | volume = 116 | issue = 4 | page = 2580 | doi = 10.1121/1.4808626 |bibcode = 2004ASAJ..116.2580D}}
*{{lay source |template=cite web |author=Diana Deutsch |title=Perfect Pitch in Tone Language Speakers Carries Over to Music: Potential for Acquiring the Coveted Musical Ability May be Universal at Birth |website=American Institute of Physics |url=http://www.aip.org/148th/deutsch.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050205050633/http://www.aip.org/148th/deutsch.html |archive-date=February 5, 2005}}</ref> Speakers of [[Sino-Tibetan languages]] have been reported to speak a word in the same absolute pitch (within a quarter-tone) on different days; it has therefore been suggested that absolute pitch may be acquired by infants when they learn to speak a tonal language<ref name="deu-2004">{{cite journal |author1=Deutsch, D. |author2=Henthorn T. |author3=Dolson, M. |title=Absolute pitch, speech, and tone language: Some experiments and a proposed framework |journal=Music Perception|volume=21 |pages=339–356 |year=2004 |doi=10.1525/mp.2004.21.3.339 |issue=3|url=http://philomel.com/pdf/MP-2004-21_339-356.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://philomel.com/pdf/MP-2004-21_339-356.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live }}</ref> (and possibly also by infants when they learn to speak a [[Pitch accent|pitch-accent language]]). However, the brains of tonal-language speakers do not naturally process musical sound as language;<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Gandour, J |author2=Wong, D. |author3=Hutchins, G. |name-list-style=amp |title=Pitch processing in the human brain is influenced by language experience |journal=NeuroReport|volume=9 |year=1998 |pages=2115–2119 |doi=10.1097/00001756-199806220-00038 |pmid=9674604 |issue=9 |s2cid=19317553 |url=http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~gandour/publications/neurp_98.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060912000200/http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~gandour/publications/neurp_98.pdf |archive-date=September 12, 2006 }}</ref> such speakers may be more likely to acquire absolute pitch for musical tones when they later receive musical training. Many native speakers of a tone language, even those with little musical training, are observed to sing a given song with consistent pitch. Among music students of East Asian ethnic heritage, those who speak a tone language fluently have a higher prevalence of absolute pitch than those who do not speak a tone language.<ref name="phil-jasa-2006">{{cite journal |author=Deutsch, D. |author2=Henthorn, T. |author3=Marvin, E. |author4=Xu H-S |name-list-style=amp|title=Absolute pitch among American and Chinese conservatory students: Prevalence differences, and evidence for a speech-related critical period |journal=The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America|volume=119 |pages=719–722 |year=2006 |doi=10.1121/1.2151799 |pmid=16521731 |issue=2|bibcode = 2006ASAJ..119..719D | url=http://philomel.com/pdf/JASA-2006_119_719-722.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://philomel.com/pdf/JASA-2006_119_719-722.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="deu-2009">{{cite journal |author1=Deutsch, D. |author2=Dooley, K. |author3=Henthorn, T. |author4=Head, B. |title=Absolute pitch among students in an American music conservatory: Association with tone language fluency |journal=The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America|volume=125 |pages=2398–2403 |year=2009 |doi=10.1121/1.3081389 |pmid=19354413 |issue=4|bibcode = 2009ASAJ..125.2398D | url=http://philomel.com/pdf/JASA-2009_125_2398-2403.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://philomel.com/pdf/JASA-2009_125_2398-2403.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="phil-588">{{cite journal |author1=Deutsch, D. |author2=Li, X. |author3=Shen, J. |name-list-style=amp | title=Absolute pitch among students at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music: A large-scale direct-test study | journal=The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America| volume=134 |issue=5 | pages=3853–3859 | year=2013 | doi=10.1121/1.4824450 |pmid=24180794 |url=http://philomel.com/pdf/JASA_2013_134_3853-3859.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://philomel.com/pdf/JASA_2013_134_3853-3859.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live|bibcode = 2013ASAJ..134.3853D}}</ref>

African level-tone languages—such as [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]],<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Connell, B. |author2=Ladd, D. R. |title=Aspects of pitch realization in Yoruba |journal=Phonology|volume=7 |year=1990 |pages=1–29 |doi=10.1017/S095267570000110X|s2cid=62215611 }}</ref> with three pitch levels, and [[Mambila language|Mambila]],<ref>{{cite journal |author= Connell, B. |title=The perception of lexical tone in Mambila |journal=Language and Speech|volume=43 |year=2000 |pages=163–182 |doi=10.1177/00238309000430020201 |pmid= 11064955 |issue= 2|s2cid=27622788 }}</ref> with four—may be better suited to study the role of absolute pitch in speech than the pitch and contour tone languages of East Asia.

Speakers of European languages make subconscious use of an absolute pitch memory when speaking.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Braun, M. |title=Speech mirrors norm-tones: Absolute pitch as a normal but precognitive trait |journal=Acoustics Research Letters Online|volume=2 |year=2001 |pages=85–90 |doi=10.1121/1.1376728 |issue=3 |url=https://pubs.aip.org/asa/arlo/article-pdf/2/3/85/7860320/85_1_online.pdf }}</ref>