Full Idea
The most comprehensible part of language is not the word itself, but rather tone, force, modulation, tempo, with which a series of words is spoken.
Gist of Idea
The pragmatics of language is more comprehensible than the meaning
Source
Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1881-82 [1882], 3[296])
A Reaction
He exaggerates. If you watch someone talking vociferously in an unknown foreign language, the feeling of the exchange is obvious, but the content is quite unknown. I see his point that we underestimate body language etc.
Book Reference
Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'The Joyful Science, and 1881-82 fragments (v 6)', ed/tr. Del Caro,Adrian [Stanford 2023], p.75