If Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language, meaning that the inflection of one’s voice changes the meaning of the word, then how is it properly understood when being sung?

Question

I’ve been a fan of the Chinese singer Faye Wong for a couple years now and have always wondered this.

In: Other

Answer 1

Its crazy to a non tonal language person. My friend is Hmong (whos language is based on Chinese) and there are literally 8 words that (to me) sound *exactly* the same, but each 8 have a completely different meaning.