"Lol" or... Not? How We Tell When Someone's Being Sarcastic—Even in Another Language
You know that feeling when someone says “lol ”... and you’re not sure if they’re being sincere or sarcastic? Now imagine hearing that in a different language. Would you still know what they meant?
This is what we do all the times- read between the lines, especially when tone isn’t obvious. Sarcasm, shade, sincerity—sometimes the same exact words can be interpreted completely differently depending on how they’re said.
Now imagine doing that in a second language. That’s exactly what a study by Rao, Ye, and Butera (2022) looked at. It’s called The Prosodic Expression of Sarcasm vs. Sincerity by Heritage Speakers of Spanish, and it looks into how Spanish-English bilinguals (specifically heritage speakers, meaning they grew up with Spanish at home but mostly speak English in daily life) use tone of voice to express sarcasm and sincerity in both languages.
Do they slow down when they’re being sarcastic? Is their pitch higher in Spanish than English? Does sarcasm even sound the same in both languages?
What Did the Study Explore?
The researchers worked with 19 English-Spanish bilinguals (heritage speakers of Spanish) and analyzed their tone of voice when saying the same sentence with either a sincere or sarcastic meaning. Participants were asked to read context-rich prompts and produce matching utterances in both Spanish and English.
They measured three things:
Speech rate (how fast someone talks)
f0 mean (average pitch)
f0 range (how much the pitch rises and falls)
They also looked at how background factors—like age, gender, and bilingual type (simultaneous vs. sequential)—influenced prosody.
Here were the key findings!
Sincerity sounds faster – Across the board, sincere speech was produced at a faster rate than sarcastic speech.
Spanish sounds higher – Spanish had a generally higher pitch and wider pitch range than English.
Tone depends on age and dominance – Younger speakers and those with different levels of language dominance showed different patterns in how they used pitch to convey tone.
Rewinding the sarcasm – For sarcasm, speakers tended to slow down and sometimes flatten their pitch, depending on their age and bilingual experience.
Families share patterns – In one family that participated, adult children and their parents patterned similarly when speaking Spanish, showing that family language input still plays a powerful role.
Why This Matters
This research goes beyond phonetics; it touches on how cultural and linguistic identities shape communication. Heritage speakers often live between languages, and this study shows they’re not just translating words; they’re adapting how emotions and attitudes are performed in speech. Understanding how bilinguals code emotion helps us better support, connect with, and learn from people whose voices move between languages and cultures.
For language learners, it’s a reminder that tone isn’t universal. How you say something in Spanish may require different strategies than in English—and it might change depending on who you're speaking to, how fluent you are, or even your age.
