The Ramblings of an Unhinged Mind

ferengi has tonal differences that many humanoid races cannot actually hear the difference in

theres five tonal groups

neutral, prey, predatory, cringe, and addressing female

each tonal group contains

neutral, sexual, and violent tones

so for example you could have predatory neutral or predatory violent or predatory sexual

this works with all the groups but let me tell you - cringe sexual is such a weird tone and like no one ever uses it except in weird foreplay and it’s not really ok for public use at all (and if you cant do something sexual in public on ferenginar you know it’s gotta be bad)

anyway predatory violent is mostly used by eliminators, and for the most part when brunt talks to quark he uses predatory sexual, which like. makes everything he ever says to quark a thousand times worse

after body parts, theres a big tonal shift with how brunt talks to quark too, and he starts using the entire range of the “addressing female” tonal group to speak to quark which as eri @death-star510 brought up last night, is why nog was so bristly and angry when brunt showed up in the magnificent ferengi. he didnt know the specifics of how much brunt has fucked with quark, but he could tell by his tone it wasn’t good

also fun fact or w/e - nog uses true neutral tone with everyone except his starfleet superiors, and with that he uses prey neutral, but as a sign of respect, even though they cant tell the difference.

rom is the first nagus to ever use true neutral tone with other ferengi instead of predatory neutral