Tone name
In tonal languages, tone names are the names given to the tones these languages use.
Chinese
In contemporary standard Chinese (Mandarin), the tones are numbered from 1 to 4. They are descended from but not identical to the historical four tones of Middle Chinese, namely level (Chinese: 平; pinyin: píng), rising (上; shǎng), departing (去; qù), and entering (入; rù), each split into yin (陰; yīn) and yang (陽; yáng) registers, and the categories of high and low syllables.
Vietnamese
Standard Vietnamese has six tones, known as ngang, sắc, huyền, hỏi, ngã, and nặng tones.
Thai
Thai has five phonemic tones: mid, low, falling, high and rising, sometimes referred to in older reference works as rectus, gravis, circumflexus, altus and demissus, respectively.[2] The table shows an example of both the phonemic tones and their phonetic realization, in the IPA.
| Tone | Thai | Example | Phonemic | Phonetic | Example meaning in English |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mid | สามัญ | นา | /nāː/ | [näː˧] | paddy field |
| low | เอก | หน่า | /nàː/ | [näː˩] or [näː˨˩] | (a nickname) |
| falling | โท | หน้า | /nâː/ | [näː˦˩] | face, front |
| high | ตรี | น้า | /náː/ | [näː˦˥] or [näː˥] | maternal aunt or uncle younger than one's mother |
| rising | จัตวา | หนา | /nǎː/ | [näː˨˩˦] or [näː˨˦] | thick |
See also
- Tone letter
- Tone number
- Archaic & modern four tones in Chinese
References
- ^ Nguyễn, Văn Lợi; Edmondson, Jerold A. (1998), "Tones and voice quality in modern northern Vietnamese: Instrumental case studies", Mon-Khmer Studies, 28: 1–18
- ^ Frankfurter, Oscar. Elements of Siamese grammar with appendices. American Presbyterian mission press, 1900 [1] (Full text available on Google Books)