Don't take a tone with me!

Don't take a tone with me!
 

I was watching a rerun of The Newsroom and I heard this phrase -not exactly an idiom, I think-.

I can't grasp what's its intended meaning. "Don't take a tone with me!" sounded a bit like "¡No me sermonees!", a bit like "don't be condescending", a bit like "¡No me mandonees!", or "¡No me trates como tarada/o!" but none of them, really.

How can I translate this notion?

No uses ese tono de voz conmigo.

"Don't take that (kind of) tone with me," is more popular. Both your posted sentence and this one mean the same thing.

Excellent! Thank you!

In my neck of the woods we say "no me hables en ese tono", we'd use voseo in subjunctive to make it a bit harsh, "no me hablés en ese tono", and a diminutive to make it even harsher "no me hablés con ese tonito".

You may want to know that "don't take a tone with me" is an unusual but perfectly understandable usage. More commonly you would hear, don't talk to me in that tone or I don't like your tone.

Don't take a tone with me seems more metaphorical almost for don't give me an attitude which in turn is a newer way of saying the more precise, don't give me bad attitude.

Very interesting. In that episode, the phrase "don't take a tone with me" was said by a subordinate to her boss; and it was said without any special inflexion of voice, I suppose as a sign of self constraint. That's why I was a bit baffled about the meaning, which looks quite clear now.

The Newsroom was written by Aaron Sorkin -the one who wrote A Few Good Men- and I enjoy his intelligent and rich ping-pong-like dialogues.

Or in street talk, "Don't cop an attitude with me!"

En España se usa "no me hables en ese tono" o "A mí no me hable con ese tono". Y un poco distinto (de progenitor a hijo-hija) "A mí no me levantes la voz"... (un concepto un poco distinto, claro)

No me levantes la voz

Don't raise your voice at me and I don't like your tone are a little different