Editing Tone (linguistics)

{{Short description|Use of pitch to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning}}
{{Hatnote|This article is about how pitch is used to distinguish words in some languages. For how pitch is used to relate emotions and attitudes in language, see [[Intonation (linguistics)]]. For the styles a single speaker switches between, like formal and informal language, see [[Register (sociolinguistics)]] or [[Style (sociolinguistics)]].}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{More citations needed|date=October 2019}}
{{tone|date=July 2022}}
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{{Use dmy dates|cs1-dates=ly|date=February 2021}}

[[File:Six tones of Vietnamese language.svg|thumb|Six [[Vietnamese phonology#Six-tone analysis|tones of Vietnamese]]]]
{{Chinese tones|Tones used=[maː˧, maː˦, maː˩˥, ma˨]}}
{{IPA notice}}
'''Tone''' is the use of [[pitch (music)|pitch]] in [[language]] to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or to [[inflection|inflect]] words.{{sfnp|Yip|2002|pp=1–3, 17–18}} All oral languages use pitch to express emotional and other para-linguistic information and to convey emphasis, contrast and other such features in what is called [[intonation (linguistics)|intonation]], but not all languages use tones to distinguish words or their inflections, analogously to consonants and vowels. Languages that have this feature are called tonal languages; the distinctive [[tone pattern]]s of such a language are sometimes called tonemes,<ref name="Trask 2004">{{cite book | last=Trask | first=R.L. | title=A Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology | publisher=Routledge | date=2004-08-02 | isbn=978-1-134-83100-5 }}</ref> by analogy with ''[[phoneme]]''. Tonal languages are common in [[East Asia|East]] and [[Southeast Asia]], [[Africa]], [[the Americas]], and the [[Pacific islands|Pacific]].{{sfnp|Yip|2002|pp=1–3, 17–18}}

Tonal languages are different from [[pitch-accent language]]s in that tonal languages can have each syllable with an independent tone whilst pitch-accent languages may have one syllable in a word or [[morpheme]] that is more prominent than the others.

==Mechanics==
Most languages use [[Pitch-accent language|pitch]] as [[Intonation (linguistics)|intonation]] to convey [[prosody (linguistics)|prosody]] and [[pragmatics]], but this does not make them tonal languages.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Li |first1=Yuanning |last2=Tang |first2=Claire |last3=Lu |first3=Junfeng |last4=Wu |first4=Jinsong |last5=Chang |first5=Edward F. |date=2021-02-19 |title=Human cortical encoding of pitch in tonal and non-tonal languages |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=1161 |doi=10.1038/s41467-021-21430-x |pmid=33608548 |pmc=7896081 |bibcode=2021NatCo..12.1161L |issn=2041-1723 }}</ref> In tonal languages, each [[syllable]] has an inherent pitch contour, and thus [[minimal pair]]s (or larger minimal sets) exist between syllables with the same segmental features (consonants and vowels) but different tones. [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]] and [[Dialects of Chinese|Chinese]] have heavily studied tone systems, as well as amongst their various dialects.

Below is a table of the six Vietnamese tones and their corresponding tone accent or diacritics:
[[File:Vietnamese tone northern.svg|300px|right|thumb|Vietnamese tones ''ngang'' ("flat"), ''huyền'' ("deep" or "falling"), ''sắc'' ("sharp" or "rising"), ''nặng'' ("heavy" or "down"), ''hỏi'' ("asking"), and ''ngã'' ("tumbling")]]
:{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! rowspan="2" | [[Tone name]]
! rowspan="2" | Tone ID
! rowspan="2" | Vni/telex/Viqr
! rowspan="2" | Description
! colspan="2" | Chao Tone Contour
! rowspan="2" | Diacritic
! rowspan="2" | Example
|-
! Northern
! Southern
|-
| ''ngang'' "flat"
| A1
| [default]
| mid level
| colspan="2" | {{IPA|˧}} (33) or {{IPA|˦}} (44)
| style="text-align: center;" | ◌
| ma
|-
| ''huyền'' "deep"
| A2
| 2 / f / `
| low falling (breathy)
| colspan="2" | {{IPA|˧˩}} (31) or {{IPA|˨˩}} (21)
| style="text-align: center;" | ◌̀
| mà
|-
| ''sắc'' "sharp"
| B1
| 1 / s / '
| mid rising, tense
| colspan="2" | {{IPA|˧˥}} (35) or {{IPA|˦˥}} (45)
| style="text-align: center;" | ◌́
| má
|-
| ''nặng'' "heavy"
| B2
| 5 / j / .
| mid falling, glottalized, heavy
| {{IPA|˧ˀ˨ʔ}} (3ˀ2ʔ)<small> or </small>{{IPA|˧ˀ˩ʔ}} (3ˀ1ʔ)
| {{IPA|˩˨}} (12) or {{IPA|˨˩˨}} (212)
| style="text-align: center;" |़ 
| mạ
|-
| ''hỏi'' "asking"
| C1
| 3 / r / ?
| mid falling(-rising), emphasis
| {{IPA|˧˩˧}} (313) or {{IPA|˧˨˧}} (323) or {{IPA|˧˩}} (31)
| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|˧˨˦}} (324) or {{IPA|˨˩˦}} (214)
| style="text-align: center;" | ◌̉
| mả
|-
| ''ngã'' "tumbling"
| C2
| 4 / x / ~
| mid rising, glottalized
| {{IPA|˧ˀ˥}} (3ˀ5) or {{IPA|˦ˀ˥}} (4ˀ5)
| style="text-align: center;" | [[̃|◌̃]]
| mã
|}

[[Mandarin Chinese]], which has [[Standard Chinese phonology#Tones|five tones]], transcribed by letters with diacritics over vowels:
[[File:Pinyin Tone Chart.svg|right|thumb|150px|The tone contours of Standard Chinese. In the convention for Chinese, 1 is low and 5 is high. The corresponding [[tone letter]]s are {{IPA|˥ ˧˥ ˨˩˦ ˥˩}}.]]
# A high level tone: /á/ ([[pinyin]] {{angbr|ā}})
# A tone starting with mid pitch and rising to a high pitch: /ǎ/ (pinyin {{angbr|á}})
# A low tone with a slight fall (if there is no following syllable, it may start with a dip then rise to a high pitch): /à/ (pinyin {{angbr|ǎ}})
# A short, sharply falling tone, starting high and falling to the bottom of the speaker's vocal range: /â/ (pinyin {{angbr|à}})
# A [[Standard Chinese phonology#Neutral tone|neutral tone]], with no specific contour, used on weak syllables; its pitch depends chiefly on the tone of the preceding syllable.

These tones combine with a syllable such as ''ma'' to produce different words. A minimal set based on ''ma'' are, in [[pinyin]] transcription:
# ''mā'' ({{wikt-lang|zh|媽}}/{{wikt-lang|zh|妈}}) 'mother'
# ''má'' ({{wikt-lang|zh|麻}}/{{wikt-lang|zh|麻}}) 'hemp'
# ''mǎ'' ({{wikt-lang|zh|馬}}/{{wikt-lang|zh|马}}) 'horse'
# ''mà'' ({{wikt-lang|zh|罵}}/{{wikt-lang|zh|骂}}) 'scold'
# ''ma'' ({{wikt-lang|zh|嗎}}/{{wikt-lang|zh|吗}}) (an [[interrogative word|interrogative particle]])

These may be combined into a [[tongue-twister]]:

:[[Simplified Chinese characters|Simplified]]: {{lang|zh-Hans|妈妈骂马的麻吗?}}
:[[Traditional Chinese characters|Traditional]]: {{lang|zh-Hant|媽媽罵馬的麻嗎?}}
:Pinyin: ''Māma mà mǎde má ma?''
:IPA {{IPA|/máma mâ màtə mǎ ma/}}
:Translation: 'Is mom scolding the horse's hemp?'

See also [[one-syllable article]].

A well-known tongue-twister in Standard Thai is:

:{{lang|th|ไหมใหม่ไหม้มั้ย}}
:IPA: {{IPA|/mǎi̯ mài̯ mâi̯ mái̯/}}
:Translation: 'Does new silk burn?'{{efn|Tones change over time, but may retain their original spelling. The Thai spelling of the final word in the tongue-twister, {{angbr|{{lang|th|ไหม}}}}, indicates a rising tone, but the word is now commonly pronounced with a high tone. Therefore a new spelling, {{lang|th|มั้ย}}, is occasionally seen in informal writing.}}
A Vietnamese tongue twister:
:{{lang|vi|Bấy nay bây bầy bảy bẫy bậy.}}
:IPA: {{IPA|[ɓʌ̌i̯ nai̯ ɓʌi̯ ɓʌ̂i̯ ɓa᷉i̯ ɓʌ̌ˀi̯ ɓʌ̂ˀi̯]}}
:Translation: 'Recently, you've been setting up the seven traps incorrectly.'
A Cantonese tongue twister:
:{{lang|yue|一人因一日引一刃一印而忍}}
:[[Jyutping]]: ''jat<sup>1</sup> jan<sup>4</sup> jan<sup>1</sup> jat<sup>1</sup> jat<sup>6</sup> jan<sup>5</sup> jat<sup>1</sup> jan<sup>6</sup> jat<sup>1</sup> jan<sup>3</sup> ji<sup>4</sup> jan<sup>2</sup>''
:IPA: {{IPA|[jɐ́t̚ jɐ̏n jɐ́n jɐ́t̚ jɐ̀t̚ jɐ᷅n jɐ́t̚ jɐ̀n jɐ́t̚ jɐn jȉː jɐ᷄n]}}
:Translation: 'One person endures a day with one knife and one print.'

Tone is most frequently manifested on vowels, but in most tonal languages where [[voiced]] [[syllabic consonant]]s occur they will bear tone as well. This is especially common with syllabic nasals, for example in many [[Bantu languages|Bantu]] and [[Kru languages]], but also occurs in [[Serbo-Croatian language|Serbo-Croatian]]. It is also possible for lexically contrastive pitch (or tone) to span entire words or morphemes instead of manifesting on the syllable nucleus (vowels), which is the case in [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Singh|first1=Chander Shekhar|title=Punjabi Prosody: The Old Tradition and The New Paradigm|date=2004|publisher=Sikuru Prakasakayo|location=Polgasowita, Sri Lanka|pages=70–82}}</ref>

Tones can interact in complex ways through a process known as [[tone sandhi]].

===Phonation===
In a number of East Asian languages, tonal differences are closely intertwined with [[phonation]] differences. In [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]], for example, the {{lang|vi|ngã}} and {{lang|vi|sắc}} tones are both high-rising but the former is distinguished by having [[glottalization]] in the middle. Similarly, the {{lang|vi|nặng}} and {{lang|vi|huyền}} tones are both low-falling, but the {{lang|vi|nặng}} tone is shorter and pronounced with [[creaky voice]] at the end, while the {{lang|vi|huyền}} tone is longer and often has [[breathy voice]]. In some languages, such as [[Burmese language|Burmese]], pitch and phonation are so closely intertwined that the two are combined in a single phonological system, where neither can be considered without the other. The distinctions of such systems are termed ''[[register (phonology)|registers]]''. The ''tone register'' here should not be confused with ''register tone'' described in the next section.

====Phonation type====
Gordon and Ladefoged established a continuum of phonation, where several types can be identified.<ref name="Gordon Ladefoged 2001 pp. 383–406">{{cite journal | last1=Gordon | first1=Matthew | last2=Ladefoged | first2=Peter | title=Phonation types: a cross-linguistic overview | journal=Journal of Phonetics | publisher=Elsevier BV | volume=29 | issue=4 | year=2001 | issn=0095-4470 | doi=10.1006/jpho.2001.0147 | pages=383–406}}</ref>

====Relationship with tone====
Kuang identified two types of phonation: '''pitch-dependent''' and '''pitch-independent'''.<ref name="Kuang2013">Kuang, J.-J. (2013). ''Phonation in Tonal Contrasts (Doctoral dissertation)''. University of California, Los Angeles.</ref> Contrast of tones has long been thought of as differences in pitch height. However, several studies pointed out that tone is actually multidimensional. Contour, duration, and phonation may all contribute to the differentiation of tones. Investigations from the 2010s using perceptual experiments seem to suggest phonation counts as a perceptual cue.<ref name="Kuang2013" /><ref>{{Cite conference| conference = Tonal Aspects of Languages-Third International Symposium| last1 = Xu| first1 = Xiaoying| last2 = Liu| first2 = Xuefei| last3 = Tao| first3 = Jianhua| last4 = Che| first4 = Hao| title = Pitch and Phonation Type Perception in Wenzhou Dialect Tone| date = 2012}}</ref><ref name="Yu Lam 2014 pp. 1320–1333">{{cite journal | last1=Yu | first1=Kristine M. | last2=Lam | first2=Hiu Wai | title=The role of creaky voice in Cantonese tonal perception | journal=The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America | publisher=Acoustical Society of America (ASA) | volume=136 | issue=3 | year=2014 | issn=0001-4966 | doi=10.1121/1.4887462 | pages=1320–1333| pmid=25190405 | bibcode=2014ASAJ..136.1320Y | doi-access=free }}</ref>

===Tone and pitch accent===
Many languages use tone in a more limited way. In [[Japanese pitch accent|Japanese]], fewer than half of the words have a [[downstep|drop in pitch]]; words contrast according to which syllable this drop follows. Such minimal systems are sometimes called [[pitch accent]] since they are reminiscent of [[stress accent]] languages, which typically allow one principal stressed syllable per word. However, there is debate over the definition of pitch accent and whether a coherent definition is even possible.{{sfnp|Hyman|2009}}

===Tone and intonation===
Both lexical or grammatical tone and prosodic [[intonation (linguistics)|intonation]] are cued by changes in pitch, as well as sometimes by changes in phonation. Lexical tone coexists with intonation, with the lexical changes of pitch like waves superimposed on larger swells. For example, Luksaneeyanawin (1993) describes three intonational patterns in Thai: falling (with semantics of "finality, closedness, and definiteness"), rising ("non-finality, openness and non-definiteness") and "convoluted" (contrariness, conflict and emphasis). The phonetic realization of these intonational patterns superimposed on the five lexical tones of Thai (in citation form) are as follows:<ref name="Laver John 1994 pp. 477-478">{{cite book | last1=Laver | first1=John | last2=John | first2=Laver | title=Principles of Phonetics | publisher=Cambridge University Press | date=1994-05-12 | isbn=0-521-45655-X | pages=477–478}}</ref>

{|class="wikitable"
|+Tone plus intonation in Thai
|-
! || Falling <br/>intonation || Rising <br/>intonation || Convoluted <br/>intonation
|-
!High level tone
|{{IPA|˦˥˦}} || {{IPA|˥}} || {{IPA|˦˥˨}}
|-
!Mid level tone
| {{IPA|˧˨}} || {{IPA|˦}} || {{IPA|˧˦˨}}
|-
!Low level tone
| {{IPA|˨˩}} || {{IPA|˧}} || {{IPA|˧˧˦}}
|-
!Falling tone
| {{IPA|˦˧˨, ˦˦˨}} || {{IPA|˦˦˧, ˥˥˦}} || {{IPA|˦˥˨}}
|-
!Rising tone
| {{IPA|˩˩˦}} || {{IPA|˧˧˦}} || {{IPA|˨˩˦}}
|}

With convoluted intonation, it appears that high and falling tone conflate, while the low tone with convoluted intonation has the same contour as rising tone with rising intonation.

===Tonal polarity===
Languages with simple tone systems or [[pitch accent]] may have one or two syllables specified for tone, with the rest of the word taking a default tone. Such languages differ in which tone is marked and which is the default. In [[Navajo language|Navajo]], for example, syllables have a low tone by default, whereas marked syllables have high tone. In the related language [[Sekani language|Sekani]], however, the default is high tone, and marked syllables have low tone.{{sfnp|Kingston|2005}} There are parallels with stress: English stressed syllables have a higher pitch than unstressed syllables.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Chrabaszcz |first1=Anna |last2=Winn |first2=Matthew |last3=Lin |first3=Candise Y. |last4=Idsardi |first4=William J. |date=August 2014 |title=Acoustic Cues to Perception of Word Stress by English, Mandarin, and Russian Speakers |journal=Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research |language=en |volume=57 |issue=4 |pages=1468–1479 |doi=10.1044/2014_JSLHR-L-13-0279 |issn=1092-4388 |pmc=5503100 |pmid=24686836}}</ref>

==Types==
===Register tones and contour tones<span class="anchor" id="register"></span><span class="anchor" id="contour"></span>===
{{redirect|High tone|the tones in telephony|High tone (telephony)|the French band|High Tone}}
{{main|Tone contour}}

In many [[Bantu languages]], tones are distinguished by their pitch level relative to each other. In multisyllable words, a single tone may be carried by the entire word rather than a different tone on each syllable. Often, grammatical information, such as past versus present, "I" versus "you", or positive versus negative, is conveyed solely by tone.

In the most widely spoken tonal language, [[Mandarin Chinese]], tones are distinguished by their distinctive shape, known as '''contour''', with each tone having a different internal pattern of rising and falling pitch.{{sfnp|Yip|2002|pp=178–184}} Many words, especially monosyllabic ones, are differentiated solely by tone. In a multisyllabic word, each syllable often carries its own tone. Unlike in Bantu systems, tone plays little role in the grammar of modern standard Chinese, though the tones descend from features in [[Old Chinese]] that had [[morphology (linguistics)|morphological]] significance (such as changing a verb to a noun or vice versa).

Most tonal languages have a combination of register and contour tones. Tone is typical of languages including [[Kra–Dai languages|Kra–Dai]], [[Vietic languages|Vietic]], [[Sino-Tibetan languages|Sino-Tibetan]], [[Afroasiatic languages|Afroasiatic]], [[Khoisan languages|Khoisan]], [[Niger-Congo languages|Niger-Congo]] and [[Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan]] languages. Most tonal languages combine both register and contour tones, such as [[Cantonese]], which produces three varieties of contour tone at three different pitch levels,{{sfnp|Yip|2002|pp=174–178}} and the Omotic (Afroasiatic) language [[Bench language|Bench]], which employs five level tones and one or two rising tones across levels.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wedeking|first=Karl|chapter=Why Bench' (Ethiopia) has five level tones today|title=Studia Linguistica Diachronica et Sinchronica|year=1985|publisher=Mouton de Gruyter|location=Berlin|pages=881–902}}</ref>

Most [[varieties of Chinese]] use contour tones, where the distinguishing feature of the tones are their shifts in pitch (that is, the pitch is a [[contour (linguistics)|contour]]), such as rising, falling, dipping, or level. Most Bantu languages (except northwestern Bantu) on the other hand, have simpler tone systems usually with high, low and one or two contour tone (usually in long vowels). In such systems there is a default tone, usually low in a two-tone system or mid in a three-tone system, that is more common and less salient than other tones. There are also languages that combine relative-pitch and contour tones, such as many [[Kru languages]] and other Niger-Congo languages of West Africa.

Falling tones tend to fall further than rising tones rise; high–low tones are common, whereas low–high tones are quite rare. A language with contour tones will also generally have as many or more falling tones than rising tones. However, exceptions are not unheard of; [[Mpi language|Mpi]], for example, has three level and three rising tones, but no falling tones.

===Word tones and syllable tones===
Another difference between tonal languages is whether the tones apply independently to each syllable or to the word as a whole. In [[Standard Cantonese|Cantonese]], [[Thai language|Thai]], and [[Kru languages]], each syllable may have a tone, whereas in [[Shanghainese]],{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}} [[Swedish language|Swedish]], [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] and many [[Bantu languages]], the contour of each tone operates at the word level. That is, a trisyllabic word in a three-tone syllable-tone language has many more tonal possibilities (3 × 3 × 3 = 27) than a monosyllabic word (3), but there is no such difference in a word-tone language. For example, Shanghainese has two contrastive (phonemic) tones no matter how many syllables are in a word.{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}} Many languages described as having [[pitch accent]] are word-tone languages.

Tone sandhi is an intermediate situation, as tones are carried by individual syllables, but affect each other so that they are not independent of each other. For example, a number of Mandarin Chinese suffixes and grammatical particles have what is called (when describing Mandarin Chinese) a "neutral" tone, which has no independent existence. If a syllable with a neutral tone is added to a syllable with a full tone, the pitch contour of the resulting word is entirely determined by that other syllable:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin:1em auto 1em auto"
|+ Realization of neutral tones in Mandarin Chinese
! Tone in isolation
! Tone pattern with<br />added neutral tone
! Example
! Pinyin
! English meaning
|-
| high {{IPA|˥}}
| {{IPA|˥꜋}}
| {{lang|zh|玻璃}}
| bōli
| glass
|-
| rising {{IPA|˧˥}}
| {{IPA|˧˥꜊}}
| {{lang|zh|伯伯}}
| bóbo
| elder uncle
|-
| dipping {{IPA|˨˩˦}}
| {{IPA|˨˩꜉}}
| {{lang|zh|喇叭}}
| lǎba
| horn
|-
| falling {{IPA|˥˩}}
| {{IPA|˥˩꜌}}
| {{lang|zh|兔子}}
| tùzi
| rabbit
|}

After high level and high rising tones, the neutral syllable has an independent pitch that looks like a mid-register tone{{spaced ndash}}the default tone in most register-tone languages. However, after a falling tone it takes on a low pitch; the contour tone remains on the first syllable, but the pitch of the second syllable matches where the contour leaves off. And after a low-dipping tone, the contour spreads to the second syllable: the contour remains the same ({{IPA|˨˩˦}}) whether the word has one syllable or two. In other words, the tone is now the property of the word, not the syllable. Shanghainese has taken this pattern to its extreme, as the pitches of all syllables are determined by the tone before them, so that only the tone of the initial syllable of a word is distinctive.

===Lexical tones and grammatical tones===
Lexical tones are used to distinguish lexical meanings. Grammatical tones, on the other hand, change the [[Grammatical category|grammatical categories]].<ref name="SIL Glossary of Linguistic Terms">{{cite web | title=Grammatical Tone | website=Glossary of Linguistic Terms | date=2015-12-03 | url=https://glossary.sil.org/term/grammatical-tone | access-date=2019-05-30 |publisher=[[SIL International]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190529182010/https://glossary.sil.org/term/grammatical-tone |archive-date=2019-05-29}}</ref> To some authors, the term includes both inflectional and derivational morphology.<ref name="Hyman 2016">{{cite conference | last=Hyman | first=Larry | title=5th International Symposium on Tonal Aspects of Languages (TAL 2016) | chapter=Lexical vs. Grammatical Tone: Sorting out the Differences | publisher=ISCA | publication-place=ISCA | date=2016-05-24 | pages=6–11 | doi=10.21437/tal.2016-2}}</ref> Tian described a grammatical tone, the ''induced creaky tone'', in [[Burmese language|Burmese]].<ref name="Tian 2018 pp. 192–218">{{cite journal | last=Tian | first=Mimi | title=Anatomy of a grammatical tone | journal=Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area | publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company | volume=41 | issue=2 | date=2018-12-31 | issn=0731-3500 | doi=10.1075/ltba.18007.tia | pages=192–218| s2cid=150580883 }}</ref>

===Number of tones===
Languages may distinguish up to five levels of pitch, though the [[Chori language]] of Nigeria is described as distinguishing six surface tone registers.{{sfnp|Odden|2020|p=37}} Since tone contours may involve up to two shifts in pitch, there are theoretically 5 × 5 × 5 = 125 distinct tones for a language with five registers. However, the most that are actually used in a language is a tenth of that number.

Several [[Kam–Sui languages]] of southern China have nine contrastive tones, including contour tones. For example, the [[Kam language]] has 9 tones: 3 more-or-less fixed tones (high, mid and low); 4 unidirectional tones (high and low rising, high and low falling); and 2 bidirectional tones (dipping and peaking). This assumes that [[checked syllable]]s are not counted as having additional tones, as they traditionally are in China. For example, in the traditional reckoning, the [[Kam language]] has 15 tones, but 6 occur only in syllables closed with the voiceless [[stop consonant]]s {{IPA|/p/}}, {{IPA|/t/}} or {{IPA|/k/}} and the other 9 occur only in syllables not ending in one of these sounds.

Preliminary work on the [[Wobe language]] (part of the Wee continuum) of Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire, the [[Ticuna language]] of the Amazon and the [[Chatino language]]s of southern Mexico suggests that some dialects may distinguish as many as fourteen tones or more. The [[Guere language]], [[Dan language]] and [[Mano language]] of Liberia and Ivory Coast have around 10 tones, give or take. The [[Oto-Manguean]] languages of Mexico have a huge number of tones as well. The most complex tonal systems are actually found in Africa and the Americas, not east Asia.

==Tonal change==

===Tone terracing===
{{main|Tone terracing}}
Tones are realized as pitch only in a relative sense. "High tone" and "low tone" are only meaningful relative to the speaker's vocal range and in comparing one syllable to the next, rather than as a contrast of absolute pitch such as one finds in music. As a result, when one combines tone with sentence [[prosody (linguistics)|prosody]], the absolute pitch of a high tone at the end of a [[prosodic unit]] may be lower than that of a low tone at the beginning of the unit, because of the universal tendency (in both tonal and non-tonal languages) for pitch to decrease with time in a process called [[downdrift]].

Tones may affect each other just as consonants and vowels do. In many register-tone languages, low tones may cause a [[downstep]] in following high or mid tones; the effect is such that even while the low tones remain at the lower end of the speaker's vocal range (which is itself descending due to downdrift), the high tones drop incrementally like steps in a stairway or [[Terrace (agriculture)|terraced]] rice fields, until finally the tones merge and the system has to be reset. This effect is called [[tone terracing]].

Sometimes a tone may remain as the sole realization of a grammatical particle after the original consonant and vowel disappear, so it can only be heard by its effect on other tones. It may cause downstep, or it may combine with other tones to form contours. These are called [[floating tone]]s.

===Tone sandhi===
{{Main|Tone sandhi}}
In many contour-tone languages, one tone may affect the shape of an adjacent tone. The affected tone may become something new, a tone that only occurs in such situations, or it may be changed into a different existing tone. This is called tone sandhi. In Mandarin Chinese, for example, a dipping tone between two other tones is reduced to a simple low tone, which otherwise does not occur in Mandarin Chinese, whereas if two dipping tones occur in a row, the first becomes a rising tone, indistinguishable from other rising tones in the language. For example, the words 很 {{IPA|[xɤn˨˩˦]}} ('very') and 好 {{IPA|[xaʊ˨˩˦]}} ('good') produce the phrase 很好 {{IPA|[xɤn˧˥ xaʊ˨˩˦]}} ('very good'). The two transcriptions may be conflated with reversed tone letters as {{IPA|[xɤn˨˩˦꜔꜒xaʊ˨˩˦]}}.

====Right- and left-dominant sandhi====
Tone sandhi in [[Varieties of Chinese|Sinitic languages]] can be classified with a left-dominant or right-dominant system. In a language of the right-dominant system, the right-most syllable of a word retains its citation tone (i.e., the tone in its isolation form). All the other syllables of the word must take their sandhi form.<ref name="Zhang 2007 pp. 259–302">{{cite journal | last=Zhang | first=Jie | title=A directional asymmetry in Chinese tone sandhi systems | journal=Journal of East Asian Linguistics | publisher=Springer Science and Business Media LLC | volume=16 | issue=4 | date=2007-08-23 | issn=0925-8558 | doi=10.1007/s10831-007-9016-2 | pages=259–302| s2cid=2850414 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal| issn = 1836-6821| last = Rose| first = Phil| title = Complexities of tonal realisation in a right-dominant Chinese Wu dialect - disyllabic tone sandhi in a speaker form Wencheng| journal = Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society |volume=9 |pages=48-80| accessdate = 2023-07-22| date = March 2016| url = https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/99985}}</ref> [[Taiwanese Hokkien|Taiwanese Southern Min]] is known for its complex sandhi system. Example: 鹹kiam<sup>5</sup> 'salty'; 酸sng<sup>1</sup> 'sour'; 甜tinn<sup>1</sup> 'sweet'; 鹹酸甜kiam<sub>7</sub> sng<sub>7</sub> tinn<sup>1</sup> 'candied fruit'. In this example, only the last syllable remains unchanged. Subscripted numbers represent the changed tone.

===Tone change===
'''Tone change''' must be distinguished from '''tone sandhi'''. [[Tone sandhi]] is a compulsory change that occurs when certain tones are juxtaposed. Tone change, however, is a morphologically conditioned [[alternation (linguistics)|alternation]] and is used as an inflectional or a derivational strategy.<ref name="Chen2004" /> Lien indicated that causative verbs in modern [[Southern Min]] are expressed with tonal alternation, and that tonal alternation may come from earlier affixes. Examples: 長 tng<sup>5</sup> 'long' vs. tng<sup>2</sup> 'grow'; 斷 tng<sup>7</sup> 'break' vs. tng<sup>2</sup> 'cause to break'.<ref>{{Cite journal| volume = 29 | number = 4 | last = Lien| first = Chin-fa| title = A Typological Study of Causatives in Taiwanese Southern Min| journal = Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies| year = 1999 | pages = 395–422 }}  Lien, Chin-fa (連金發). (1999). A Typological Study of Causatives in Taiwanese Southern Min [台灣閩南語使動式的類型研究]. ''The Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies, 29''(4), 395-422.</ref> Also, 毒 in [[Taiwanese Hokkien|Taiwanese Southern Min]] has two pronunciations: to̍k (entering tone) means 'poison' or 'poisonous', while thāu (departing tone) means 'to kill with poison'.<ref>[https://twblg.dict.edu.tw/holodict_new/default.jsp 教育部臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507124345/https://twblg.dict.edu.tw/holodict_new/default.jsp |date=2021-05-07  }}. Ministry of Education, Taiwan. Retrieved 11 June 2019.</ref> The same usage can be found in Min, Yue, and Hakka.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=吳 |first=瑞文 |date=2005-09-18 |title=吳閩方言音韻比較研究 (Wú mǐn fāngyán yīnyùn bǐjiào yánjiū {{!}} A Comparative Study on the Phonology of Wu and Min Dialects) |degree=PhD |pages=46, 65 |publisher=National Chengchi University |url=http://nccur.lib.nccu.edu.tw/handle/140.119/35579 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809142454/http://nccur.lib.nccu.edu.tw/handle/140.119/35579 |archive-date=2020-08-09 |language=zh |via=NCCU Institutional Repository}}</ref>

==Uses of tone==
In East Asia, tone is typically lexical. That is, tone is used to distinguish words which would otherwise be [[homonyms]]. This is characteristic of heavily tonal languages such as Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, and [[Hmong language|Hmong]].

However, in many African languages, especially in the [[Niger–Congo]] family, tone can be both lexical and grammatical. In the [[Kru languages]], a combination of these patterns is found: nouns tend to have complex tone systems but are not much affected by grammatical inflections, whereas verbs tend to have simple tone systems, which are inflected to indicate [[grammatical tense|tense and mood]], [[grammatical person|person]], and [[Grammatical polarity|polarity]], so that tone may be the only distinguishing feature between "you went" and "I won't go".

In [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]], much of the lexical and grammatical information is carried by tone. In languages of West Africa such as Yoruba, people may even communicate with so-called "[[talking drum]]s", which are modulated to imitate the tones of the language,<ref name="Adekanmbi_1989">{{cite journal |last1=Adekanmbi |first1=Adetokunbo |date=March 1989 |title=Tones of Yoruba Language |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24537005 |journal=Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences |volume=79 |issue=1 |pages=29–34 |jstor=24537005 |access-date=2024-06-14}}</ref> or by [[Whistled language|whistling]] the tones of speech.{{Citation needed|date=January 2019}}

Note that tonal languages are not distributed evenly across the same range as non-tonal languages.<ref name="Maddieson">{{cite book|last=Maddieson|first=Ian|chapter=Tone|editor1-last=Dryer|editor1-first=Matthew S.|editor2-last=Haspelmath|editor2-first=Martin|title=The World Atlas of Language Structures Online|chapter-url=http://wals.info/chapter/13|location=Leipzig|publisher=Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology|year=2013|url=http://wals.info/|access-date=2020-09-19 |archive-date=2011-02-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110226184610/http://wals.info/|url-status=live}}</ref> Instead, the majority of tone languages belong to the Niger-Congo, Sino-Tibetan and Vietic groups, which are then composed by a large majority of tone languages and dominate a single region. Only in limited locations (South Africa, New Guinea, Mexico, Brazil and a few others) do tone languages occur as individual members or small clusters within a non-tone dominated area. In some locations, like Central America, it may represent no more than an incidental effect of which languages were included when one examines the distribution; for groups like Khoi-San in Southern Africa and Papuan languages, whole families of languages possess tonality but simply have relatively few members, and for some North American tone languages, multiple independent origins are suspected.

If generally considering only complex-tone vs. no-tone, it might be concluded that tone is almost always an ancient feature within a language family that is highly conserved among members. However, when considered in addition to "simple" tone systems that include only two tones, tone, as a whole, appears to be more labile, appearing several times within Indo-European languages, several times in American languages, and several times in Papuan families.<ref name="Maddieson" /> That may indicate that rather than a trait unique to some language families, tone is a latent feature of most language families that may more easily arise and disappear as languages change over time.{{sfnp|Hombert|Ohala|Ewan|1979}}

A 2015 study by [[Caleb Everett]] argued that tonal languages are more common in hot and humid climates, which make them easier to pronounce, even when considering familial relationships. If the conclusions of Everett's work are sound, this is perhaps the first known case of influence of the environment on the structure of the languages spoken in it.<ref>{{cite journal |pmc=4321236|year=2015|last1=Everett|first1=C.|title=Climate, vocal folds, and tonal languages: Connecting the physiological and geographic dots|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|volume=112|issue=5|pages=1322–1327|last2=Blasi|first2=D. E.|last3=Roberts|first3=S. G.|doi=10.1073/pnas.1417413112|bibcode=2015PNAS..112.1322E|pmid=25605876|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Wet Is Better for Tonal Languages |first=Sarah |last=Lewin |date=April 1, 2015 |journal=Scientific American|volume=312 |issue=4 |pages=19 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0415-19 }}</ref> The proposed relationship between climate and tone is controversial, and logical and statistical issues have been raised by various scholars.<ref>{{cite journal |year=2016|last1=Gussenhoven |first1=Carlos |title=Commentary: Tonal complexity in non-tonal languages |journal=Journal of Language Evolution |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=62–64 |doi=10.1093/jole/lzv016|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |year=2016|last1=Ladd |first1=D. Robert |title=Commentary: Tone languages and laryngeal precision |journal=Journal of Language Evolution |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=70–72 |doi=10.1093/jole/lzv014|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |pmc=5826341 |year=2018|last1=Roberts|first1=Seán G.|title=Robust, Causal, and Incremental Approaches to Investigating Linguistic Adaptation|journal=Frontiers in Psychology|volume=9 |pages=166| doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00166 |pmid=29515487|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==Tone and inflection==
Tone has long been viewed as a phonological system. It was not until recent years that tone was found to play a role in [[inflection|inflectional morphology]]. Palancar and Léonard (2016)<ref>{{Cite book |author1=Palancar, E. L. |author2=Léonard, J.-L. |editor1=Palancar, E. L. |editor2=Léonard, J.-L. |chapter=Tone and inflection: An introduction |title=Tone and Inflection: New Facts and New Perspectives |year=2016 |pages=1–12 |location=Berlin |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |chapter-url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01099327/document |access-date=2019-01-23  |archive-date=2019-01-23  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190123225054/https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01099327/document |url-status=live }}</ref> provided an example with Tlatepuzco [[Chinantecan languages|Chinantec]] (an [[Oto-Manguean languages|Oto-Manguean language]] spoken in Southern [[Mexico]]), where tones are able to distinguish [[Grammatical mood|mood]], [[Grammatical person|person]], and [[Grammatical number|number]]:
{|class="wikitable"
|+ Forms of 'bend' in Tlatepuzco Chinantec
! scope="col" | 
! scope="col" | 1 SG
! scope="col" | 1 PL
! scope="col" | 2
! scope="col" | 3
|-
! scope="row" | Completive
| húʔ˩ || húʔ˩˥ || húʔ˩ || húʔ˧
|-
! scope="row" | Incompletive
| húʔ˩˧ || húʔ˩˧ || húʔ˩˧ || húʔ˧
|-
! scope="row" | Irrealis
| húʔ˩˥ || húʔ˩˥ || húʔ˩˥ || húʔ˧
|-
|}

In [[Iau language]] (the most tonally complex [[Lakes Plain languages|Lakes Plain language]], predominantly monosyllabic), nouns have an inherent tone (e.g. be˧ 'fire' but be˦˧ 'flower'), but verbs don't have any inherent tone. For verbs, a tone is used to mark [[grammatical aspect|aspect]]. The first work that mentioned this was published in 1986.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://sealang.net/archives/nusa/pdf/nusa-v26.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170304115044/http://sealang.net/archives/nusa/pdf/nusa-v26.pdf |archive-date=2017-03-04 |url-status=live |first=Janet |last=Bateman |title=Iau Verb Morphology |series=Nusa, Linguistic Studies of Indonesian and Other Languages in Indonesia |publisher=Jakarta: Universitas Katolik Atma Jaya |pages=3rd (9th in PDF)}}</ref> Example paradigms:<ref name="Foley-NWNG">{{cite book |last=Foley |first=William A. |authorlink=William A. Foley |editor1-last=Palmer |editor1-first=Bill |date=2018 |title=The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide |chapter=The languages of Northwest New Guinea |series= The World of Linguistics |volume=4 |location=Berlin |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |pages=433–568 |isbn=978-3-11-028642-7}}</ref>
{|class="wikitable"
|+ Aspects in Iau
! Tone !! Aspect !! ba 'come'  !! tai 'moving s.t. toward' !! da 'locate s.t. inside'
|-
| tone 2 || totality of action, punctual || ba˦ 'came'  || tai˦ 'pulled' || da˦ 'ate, put it in (stomach)'
|-
| tone 3 || resultative durative || ba˧ 'has come'  || tai˧ 'has been pulled off' || da˧ 'has been loaded onto s.t.'
|-
| tone 21 || totality of action, incomplete || ba˦˥ 'might come'  || tai˦˥ 'might pull' || 
|-
| tone 43 || resultative punctual || ba˨˧ 'came to get'  || tai˨˧ 'land on s.t.' || da˨˧ 'dip into water, wash s.t.'
|-
| tone 24 || [[telicity|telic]] punctual || ba˦˨ 'came to end'  || tai˦˨ 'fell to ground' || da˦˨ 'eaten it all up'
|-
| tone 23 || telic, incomplete || ba˦˧ 'still coming'  || tai˦˧ 'still falling' || da˦˧ 'still eating it up'
|-
| tone 34 || totality of action, durative || ba˧˨ 'be coming'  || tai˧˨ 'be pulling' || 
|-
| tone 243 || telic durative || ba˦˨˧ 'sticking to'  || tai˦˨˧ 'be falling' || 
|-
|  ||  ||  || tai˦˥–˧˨ 'pull on s.t., shake hands' || 
|-
|  ||  ||  || tai˦˥–˧ 'have pulled s.t., shook hands' || 
|}

Tones are used to differentiate [[Grammatical case|cases]] as well, as in [[Maasai language]] (a [[Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan language]] spoken in [[Kenya]] and [[Tanzania]]):<ref>{{cite book |last=Hyman |first=L. M. |editor1-last=Palancar |editor1-first=E. L. |editor2-last=Léonard |editor2-first=J. L. |chapter=Morphological tonal assignments in conflict: Who wins? |title=Tone and Inflection: New Facts and New Perspectives |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |location=Berlin, Germany |date=2016 |pages= 15–39}}</ref>
{|class="wikitable"
|+ Case difference in Maasai
! scope="col" | gloss
! scope="col" | Nominative
! scope="col" | Accusative
|-
! scope="row" |'head'
| èlʊ̀kʊ̀nyá || èlʊ́kʊ́nyá
|-
! scope="row" |'rat'
| èndérònì || èndèrónì
|-
|}

Certain [[varieties of Chinese]] are known to express meaning by means of tone change although further investigations are required. Examples from two [[Yue Chinese|Yue dialects]] spoken in [[Guangdong Province]] are shown below.<ref name="Chen2004">Chen, Matthew Y. (2000). ''Tone Sandhi: Patterns across Chinese dialects''. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.</ref> In [[Taishanese|Taishan]], tone change indicates the grammatical number of personal pronouns. In Zhongshan, [[perfective aspect|perfective]] verbs are marked with tone change.

* Taishan
{| class="wikitable"
|-
| ngwoi˧ || 'I' (singular)
|-
| ngwoi˨ || 'we' (plural)
|}

* Zhongshan
{| class="wikitable"
|-
| hy˨ || 'go'
|-
| hy˧˥ || 'gone' (perfective)
|}

The following table compares the personal pronouns of Sixian dialect (a dialect of [[Taiwanese Hakka]])<ref>{{Cite journal |author=Lai, W.-Y. |title=The Source of Hakka Personal Pronoun and Genitive with the Viewpoint of Diminutive |journal=Journal of Taiwanese Languages and Literature |year=2010  |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=53–80}}</ref> with Zaiwa and Jingpho<ref>{{Cite journal |author= Sun, H.-K. |title= Case markers of personal pronouns in Tibeto-Burman languages |journal=Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area |year=1996  |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=1–15}}</ref> (both [[Tibeto-Burman languages]] spoken in [[Yunnan]] and [[Myanmar|Burma]]). From this table, we find the distinction between nominative, genitive, and accusative is marked by tone change and [[Alternation (linguistics)|sound alternation]].

{|class="wikitable"
|+ Comparison of personal pronouns
! scope="col" | 
! scope="col" | [[Sixian dialect|Sixian]]
! scope="col" | [[Zaiwa language|Zaiwa]]
! scope="col" | [[Jingpho language|Jingpho]]
|-
! scope="row" | 1 Nom
| ŋai˩ || ŋo˥˩ || ŋai˧
|-
! scope="row" | 1 Gen
| ŋa˨˦ or ŋai˩ ke˥ || ŋa˥ || ŋjeʔ˥
|-
! scope="row" | 1 Acc
| ŋai˩ || ŋo˧˩ || ŋai˧
|-
! scope="row" | 2 Nom
| ŋ̍˩ || naŋ˥˩ || naŋ˧
|-
! scope="row" | 2 Gen
| ŋia˨˦ or ŋ̍˩ ke˥ || naŋ˥ || naʔ˥
|-
! scope="row" | 2 Acc
| ŋ̍˩ || naŋ˧˩ || naŋ˧
|-
! scope="row" | 3 Nom
| ki˩ || jaŋ˧˩ || khji˧
|-
! scope="row" | 3 Gen
| kia˨˦ or ki˩ ke˥ || jaŋ˥˩ || khjiʔ˥
|-
! scope="row" | 3 Acc
| ki˩ || jaŋ˧˩ || khji˧
|-
|}

==Phonetic notation==
{{see also|Phonetic transcription|Tone letter}}
There are several approaches to notating tones in the description of a language. A fundamental difference is between ''phonemic'' and ''phonetic'' transcription.

A phonemic notation will typically lack any consideration of the actual phonetic values of the tones. Such notations are especially common when comparing dialects with wildly different phonetic realizations of what are historically the same set of tones. In Chinese, for example, the "[[four tones (Middle Chinese)|four tones]]" may be assigned numbers, such as ① to ④ or – after the historical tone split that affected all Chinese languages to at least some extent – ① to ⑧ (with odd numbers for the ''yin'' tones and even numbers for the ''yang''). In traditional Chinese notation, the equivalent diacritics {{angbr|{{IPA|꜀◌ ꜂◌ ◌꜄ ◌꜆}}}} are attached to the [[Chinese character]], marking the same distinctions, plus underlined {{angbr|{{IPA|꜁◌ ꜃◌ ◌꜅ ◌꜇}}}} for the ''yang'' tones where a split has occurred. If further splits occurred in some language or dialect, the results may be numbered '4a' and '4b' or something similar. Among the [[Kradai languages]], tones are typically assigned the letters A through D or, after a historical tone split similar to what occurred in Chinese, A1 to D1 and A2 to D2. (See [[Proto-Tai language]].) With such a system, it can be seen which words in two languages have the same historical tone (say tone ③) even though they no longer sound anything alike.

Also phonemic are [[upstep]] and [[downstep]], which are indicated by the IPA diacritics {{angbr|{{IPA|ꜛ}}}} and {{angbr|{{IPA|ꜜ}}}}, respectively, or by the typographic substitutes {{angbr|{{IPA|ꜞ}}}} and {{angbr|{{IPA|ꜝ}}}}, respectively. Upstep and downstep affect the tones within a language as it is being spoken, typically due to grammatical inflection or when certain tones are brought together. (For example, a high tone may be stepped down when it occurs after a low tone, compared to the pitch it would have after a mid tone or another high tone.)

Phonetic notation records the actual relative pitch of the tones. Since tones tend to vary over time periods as short as centuries, this means that the historical connections among the tones of two language varieties will generally be lost by such notation, even if they are dialects of the same language.

* The easiest notation from a typographical perspective – but one that is internationally ambiguous – is a numbering system, with the pitch levels assigned digits and each tone transcribed as a digit (or as a sequence of digits if a contour tone). Such systems tend to be idiosyncratic (high tone may be assigned the digit 1, 3, or 5, for example) and have therefore not been adopted for the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]]. For instance, high tone is conventionally written with a 1 and low tone with a 4 or 5 when transcribing the [[Kru languages]] of Liberia, but with 1 for low and 5 for high for the [[Omotic languages]] of Ethiopia. The tone {{angle bracket|53}} in a Kru language is thus the same pitch contour as one written {{angle bracket|35}} in an Omotic language. Pitch value 1 may be distinguished from tone number 1 by doubling it or making it superscript or both. 
* For simple tone systems, a series of diacritics such as {{angbr|ó}} for high tone and {{angbr|ò}} for low tone may be practical. This has been adopted by the IPA, but is not easy to adapt to complex contour tone systems (see under Chinese below for one workaround). The five IPA diacritics for level tones are {{angbr IPA|ő ó ō ò ȍ}}, with doubled high and low diacritics for ''extra high'' and ''extra low'' (or 'top' and 'bottom'). The diacritics combine to form contour tones, of which {{angbr IPA|ô ǒ o᷄ o᷅ o᷆ o᷇ o᷈ o᷉}} have Unicode font support (support for additional combinations is sparse). Sometimes, a non-IPA vertical diacritic is seen for a second, higher mid tone, {{angbr IPA|o̍}}, so a language with four or six level tones may be transcribed {{angbr IPA|ó o̍ ō ò}} or {{angbr IPA|ő ó o̍ ō ò ȍ}}. For the [[Chinantecan languages]] of Mexico, the diacritics {{angbr|{{IPA|◌ꜗ ◌ꜘ ◌ꜙ ◌ꜚ}}}} have been used, but they are a local convention not accepted by the IPA. 
* A retired IPA system, sometimes still encountered,<ref name="Heselwood 2013 p. 1">{{cite book | last=Heselwood | first=Barry | title=Phonetic Transcription in Theory and Practice | publisher=Edinburgh University Press | year=2013 | isbn=978-0-7486-9101-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HVarBgAAQBAJ | access-date=2023-07-22 | page=7}}</ref> traces the ''shape'' of the tone (the [[pitch trace]]) before the syllable, where a stress mark would go. Thus level, rising, falling, peaking and dipping tones on [o] are {{angbr IPA|ˉo ˊo ˋo ˆo ˇo }}; these are read as high tones when contrasted with the low tones {{angbr IPA|ˍo ˏo ˎo ꞈo ˬo}} or with mid tones, which are poorly supported by Unicode (e.g. falling {{angbr IPA|˴o}}). For a concrete example, when the diacritics are applied to the [[Hanyu Pinyin]] syllable [sa] used in [[Standard Chinese]], it becomes easier to identify more specific rising and falling tones: {{IPA|[ˆsa]}} (high peaking tone), {{IPA|[ˍsa]}} (low level tone), etc. This system was used in combination with stress marks to indicate intonation as well, as in English {{IPA|[ˈgʊd ˌɑːftə`nuːn]}} (now transcribed {{IPA|[ˈgʊd ˌɑːftə↘nuːn]}}).
* The most flexible system, based on the previous spacing diacritics but with the addition of a stem (like the staff of musical notation), is that of the IPA-adopted [[Chao tone letter]]s, which are iconic schematics of the pitch trace of the tone in question. Because musical staff notation is international, there is no international ambiguity with the Chao/IPA tone letters: a line at the top of the staff is high tone, a line at the bottom is low tone, and the shape of the line is a schematic of the contour of the tone (as visible in a [[pitch trace]]). They are most commonly used for complex contour systems, such as those of the languages of Liberia and southern China.
:The Chao tone letters have two variants. The left-stem letters, {{angbr|{{IPA|꜒ ꜓ ꜔ ꜕ ꜖}}}}, are used for [[tone sandhi]]. These are especially important for the [[Min Chinese]] languages. For example, a word may be pronounced {{IPA|/ɕim˥˧/}} in isolation, but in a compound the tone will shift to {{IPA|/ɕim˦mĩʔ˧˨/}}. This can be notated morphophonemically as {{angle bracket|{{IPA|//ɕim˥˧꜓mĩʔ˧˨//}}}}, where the back-to-front tone letters simultaneously show the underlying tone and the value in this word. Using the local (and internationally ambiguous) non-IPA numbering system, the compound may be written {{angle bracket|{{IPA|//ɕim⁵³⁻⁴⁴ mĩʔ³²//}}}}. Left-stem letters may also be combined to form contour tones. 
:The second Chao letter variant are the dotted tone letters {{angbr|{{IPA|꜈ ꜉ ꜊ ꜋ ꜌}}}}, which are used to indicate the pitch of [[neutral tone]]s. These are phonemically null, and may be indicated with the digit '0' in a numbering system, but take specific pitches depending on the preceding phonemic tone. When combined with tone sandhi, the left-stem dotted tone letters {{angbr|{{IPA|꜍ ꜎ ꜏ ꜐ ꜑}}}} are seen.

{| class=wikitable
|+Conventions for five-pitch transcription{{sfnp|International Phonetic Association|1989|p=76}}
|- style="vertical-align:top; text-align:center;"
! Name
|style="width: 6em;"| Top tone (extra-high)
|style="width: 6em;"| High tone
|High-mid tone
| style="width: 6em;" | Mid tone
|Low-mid tone
| style="width: 6em;" | Low tone
|style="width: 6em;"| Bottom tone (extra-low)
|-align=center
! IPA tone diacritic
| {{IPA symbol2|◌̋ }}
| {{IPA symbol2|◌́ }}
|
| {{IPA symbol2|◌̄ }}
|
| {{IPA symbol2|◌̀ }}
| {{IPA symbol2|◌̏ }}
|- align=center
! IPA chart tone letter
|
| {{IPA symbol2|◌˥}}
|{{IPA symbol2|◌˦}}
| {{IPA symbol2|◌˧}}
|{{IPA symbol2|◌˨}}
| {{IPA symbol2|◌˩}}
|
|- align=center
! Neutral tone letter
|
| {{IPA symbol2|◌꜈}}
|{{IPA symbol2|◌꜉}}
| {{IPA symbol2|◌꜊}}
|{{IPA symbol2|◌꜋}}
| {{IPA symbol2|◌꜌}}
|
|- align=center
! Sandhi tone letter{{efn|name=extIPA|These extended Chao tone letters were accepted at the IPA Kiel convention, and are often used in conjunction with the chart letters.}}
|
| {{IPA symbol2|◌꜒}}
|{{IPA symbol2|◌꜓}}
| {{IPA symbol2|◌꜔}}
|{{IPA symbol2|◌꜕}}
| {{IPA symbol2|◌꜖}}
|
|- align=center
! Sandhi neutral tone letter
|
| {{IPA symbol2|◌꜍}}
|{{IPA symbol2|◌꜎}}
| {{IPA symbol2|◌꜏}}
|{{IPA symbol2|◌꜐}}
| {{IPA symbol2|◌꜑}}
|
|}

{| class=wikitable
|- style="vertical-align:top; text-align:center;"
! Name
|style="width: 6em;"| Falling tone
|style="width: 6em;"| High falling tone
|style="width: 6em;"| Low falling tone
|-align=center
! IPA tone diacritic
| {{IPA symbol2|◌̂ }}
| {{IPA symbol2|◌᷇ }}
| {{IPA symbol2|◌᷆ }}
|-valign=top
! &nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />IPA tone letters
| {{IPA symbol2|{{nowrap|˥˩, ˥˨, ˥˧, ˥˦,<br /> ˦˩, ˦˨, ˦˧,<br /> ˧˩, ˧˨, ˨˩}}}}
| {{IPA symbol2|{{nowrap|◌˥˧, ◌˥˦,}} ◌˦˧,}} &c.
| {{IPA symbol2|{{nowrap|◌˧˩, ◌˧˨,}} ◌˨˩,}} &c.
|}

{| class=wikitable
|- style="vertical-align:top; text-align:center;"
! Name
|style="width: 6em;"| Rising tone
|style="width: 6em;"| High rising tone
|style="width: 6em;"| Low rising tone
|-align=center
! IPA tone diacritic
| {{IPA symbol2|◌̌ }}
| {{IPA symbol2|◌᷄ }}
| {{IPA symbol2|◌᷅ }}
|-valign=top
! &nbsp;<br />&nbsp;<br />IPA tone letters
| {{IPA symbol2|{{nowrap|˩˥, ˩˦, ˩˧, ˩˨,<br />˨˥, ˨˦, ˨˧,<br />˧˥, ˧˦, ˦˥}}}}
| {{IPA symbol2|{{nowrap|◌˧˥, ◌˦˥,}} ◌˧˦,}} &c.
| {{IPA symbol2|{{nowrap|◌˩˧, ◌˨˧,}} ◌˩˨,}} &c.
|}

{| class=wikitable
|- style="vertical-align:top; text-align:center;"
! Name
|style="width: 6em;"| Dipping tone <br/><small>(falling–rising)</small>
|style="width: 6em;"| Peaking tone <br/><small>(rising–falling)</small>
|-
! IPA tone diacritic
| {{IPA symbol2|◌᷉ }}
| {{IPA symbol2|◌᷈ }}
|-
! IPA tone letters
| {{Collapsible list
| | title = (various)
| | {{IPA symbol2|{{nowrap|˨˩˨,˨˩˧,˨˩˦,˨˩˥,<br />˧˩˨,˧˩˧,˧˩˦,˧˩˥,<br />˧˨˧,˧˨˦,˧˨˥,<br />˦˩˨,˦˩˧,˦˩˦,˦˩˥,<br />˦˨˧,˦˨˦,˦˨˥,<br />˦˧˦,˦˧˥,<br />˥˩˨,˥˩˧,˥˩˦,˥˩˥,<br />˥˨˧,˥˨˦,˥˨˥,<br />˥˧˦,˥˧˥,<br />˥˦˥}}}}
| }}
| {{Collapsible list
| | title = (various)|{{IPA symbol2|{{nowrap|˦˥˦,˦˥˧,˦˥˨,˦˥˩,<br />˧˥˦,˧˥˧,˧˥˨,˧˥˩,<br />˧˦˧,˧˦˨,˧˦˩,<br />˨˥˦,˨˥˧,˨˥˨,˨˥˩,<br />˨˦˧,˨˦˨,˨˦˩,<br />˨˧˨,˨˧˩,<br />˩˥˦,˩˥˧,˩˥˨,˩˥˩,<br />˩˦˧,˩˦˨,˩˦˩,<br />˩˧˨,˩˧˩,<br />˩˨˩}}}}
| }}
|}

An IPA/Chao tone letter will rarely be composed of more than three elements (which are sufficient for peaking and dipping tones). Occasionally, however, peaking–dipping and dipping–peaking tones, which require four elements – or even double-peaking and double-dipping tones, which require five – are encountered. This is usually only the case when [[prosody (linguistics)|prosody]] is superposed on lexical or grammatical tone, but a good computer font will allow an indefinite number of tone letters to be concatenated. The IPA diacritics placed over vowels and other letters have not been extended to this level of complexity.

===Africa===
In African linguistics (as well as in many African orthographies), a set of diacritics is usual to mark tone. The most common are a subset of the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]]:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|High tone
|acute
|á
|-
|Mid tone
|macron
|ā
|-
|Low tone
|grave
|à
|}

Minor variations are common. In many three-tone languages, it is usual to mark high and low tone as indicated above but to omit marking of the mid tone: ''má'' (high), ''ma'' (mid), ''mà'' (low). Similarly, in two-tone languages, only one tone may be marked explicitly, usually the less common or more 'marked' tone (see [[markedness]]).

When digits are used, typically 1 is high and 5 is low, except in [[Omotic languages]], where 1 is low and 5 or 6 is high. In languages with just two tones, 1 may be high and 2 low, etc.

===Asia===
In the Chinese tradition, digits are assigned to various tones (see [[tone number]]). For instance, [[Standard Mandarin Chinese]], the official language of China, has four lexically contrastive tones, and the digits 1, 2, 3, and 4 are assigned to four tones. Syllables can sometimes be toneless and are described as having a neutral tone, typically indicated by omitting tone markings. Chinese varieties are traditionally described in terms of four tonal categories ''ping'' ('level'), ''shang'' ('rising'), ''qu'' ('exiting'), ''ru'' ('entering'), based on the traditional analysis of [[Middle Chinese]] (see [[Four tones]]); note that these are not at all the same as the four tones of modern standard Mandarin Chinese.{{efn|Specifically, words that had the Middle Chinese ''ping'' (level) tone are now distributed over tones 1 and 2 in Mandarin Chinese, while the Middle Chinese ''shang'' (rising) and ''qu'' (exiting) tones have become Mandarin Chinese tones 3 and 4, respectively. Words with the former ''ru'' (entering) tone, meanwhile, have been distributed over all four tones.}} Depending on the dialect, each of these categories may then be divided into two tones, typically called ''yin'' and ''yang.'' Typically, syllables carrying the ''ru'' tones are closed by voiceless stops in Chinese varieties that have such coda(s) so in such dialects, ''ru'' is not a tonal category in the sense used by Western linguistics but rather a category of syllable structures. Chinese phonologists perceived these [[checked syllable]]s as having concomitant short tones, justifying them as a tonal category. In [[Middle Chinese]], when the tonal categories were established, the ''shang'' and ''qu'' tones also had characteristic final obstruents with concomitant tonic differences whereas syllables bearing the ''ping'' tone ended in a simple sonorant. An alternative to using the Chinese category names is assigning to each category a digit ranging from 1 to 8, sometimes higher for some Southern Chinese dialects with additional tone splits. Syllables belonging to the same tone category differ drastically in actual phonetic tone across the [[varieties of Chinese]] even among dialects of the same group. For example, the ''yin ping'' tone is a high level tone in Beijing Mandarin Chinese but a low level tone in Tianjin Mandarin Chinese.

More iconic systems use tone numbers or an equivalent set of graphic pictograms known as "[[Y. R. Chao|Chao]] [[tone letter]]s". These divide the pitch into five levels, with the lowest being assigned the value 1 and the highest the value 5. (This is the opposite of equivalent systems in Africa and the Americas.) The variation in pitch of a [[tone contour]] is notated as a string of two or three numbers. For instance, the four Mandarin Chinese tones are transcribed as follows (the tone letters will not display properly without a [[International Phonetic Alphabet#Typefaces|compatible font]] installed):

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin:1em auto 1em auto"
|+Tones of Standard Chinese (Mandarin)
|High tone
|55
| {{IPA|˥}}
|(Tone 1)
|-
|Mid rising tone
|35
| {{IPA|˧˥}}
|(Tone 2)
|-
|Low dipping tone
|21(4)
| {{IPA|˨˩˦}}
|(Tone 3)
|-
|High falling tone
|51
| {{IPA|˥˩}}
|(Tone 4)
|}
A mid-level tone would be indicated by /33/, a low level tone /11/, etc. The doubling of the number is commonly used with level tones to distinguish them from tone numbers; tone 3 in Mandarin Chinese, for example, is not mid /3/. However, it is not necessary with tone letters, so /33/ = {{IPA|/˧˧/}} or simply {{IPA|/˧/}}. If a distinction is made, it may be that {{IPA|/˧/}} is mid tone in a register system and {{IPA|/˧˧/}} is mid level tone in a contour system, or {{IPA|/˧/}} may be mid tone on a short syllable or a mid [[checked tone]], while {{IPA|/˧˧/}} is mid tone on a long syllable or a mid unchecked tone.

IPA diacritic notation is also sometimes seen for Chinese. One reason it is not more widespread is that only two contour tones, rising {{IPA|/ɔ̌/}} and falling {{IPA|/ɔ̂/}}, are widely supported by IPA fonts while several Chinese varieties have more than one rising or falling tone. One common workaround is to retain standard IPA {{IPA|/ɔ̌/}} and {{IPA|/ɔ̂/}} for high-rising (e.g. {{IPA|/˧˥/}}) and high-falling (e.g. {{IPA|/˥˧/}}) tones and to use the subscript diacritics {{IPA|/ɔ̗/}} and {{IPA|/ɔ̖/}} for low-rising (e.g. {{IPA|/˩˧/}}) and low-falling (e.g. {{IPA|/˧˩/}}) tones.

===North America===
Several North American languages have tone, one of which is [[Cherokee language|Cherokee]], an [[Iroquoian language]]. Oklahoma Cherokee has six tones (1 low, 2 medium, 3 high, 4 very high, 5 rising and 6 falling).<ref name="Cherokee"/> The [[Tanoan languages]] have tone as well. For instance, [[Kiowa language|Kiowa]] has three tones (high, low, falling), while [[Jemez language|Jemez]] has four (high, mid, low, and falling).

In Mesoamericanist linguistics, /1/ stands for high tone and /5/ stands for low tone, except in [[Oto-Manguean]] languages for which /1/ may be low tone and /3/ high tone. It is also common to see acute accents for high tone and grave accents for low tone and combinations of these for contour tones. Several popular orthographies use {{angbr|j}} or {{angbr|h}} after a vowel to indicate low tone. The [[Southern Athabascan languages]] that include the [[Navajo language|Navajo]] and [[Apache languages]] are tonal, and are analyzed as having two tones: high and low. One variety of [[Hopi language|Hopi]] has developed tone, as has the [[Cheyenne language]].

===Tone orthographies===

In Roman script orthographies, a number of approaches are used. Diacritics are common, as in [[pinyin]], but they tend to be omitted.<ref name=Dungan/> [[Thai alphabet|Thai]] uses a combination of redundant consonants and diacritics. Tone letters may also be used, for example in [[Hmong RPA]] and several minority languages in China. Tone may simply be ignored, as is possible even for highly tonal languages: for example, the Chinese navy has successfully used toneless pinyin in government telegraph communications for decades. Likewise, Chinese reporters abroad may file their stories in toneless pinyin. [[Dungan language|Dungan]], a variety of Mandarin Chinese spoken in Central Asia, has, since 1927, been written in orthographies that do not indicate tone.<ref name=Dungan>{{Cite web |url=http://www.pinyin.info/readings/texts/dungan.html |title=''Implications of the Soviet Dungan Script for Chinese Language Reform'' |access-date=2009-01-25  |archive-date=2019-08-20  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190820221315/http://www.pinyin.info/readings/texts/dungan.html |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Ndyuka language|Ndjuka]], in which tone is less important, ignores tone except for a negative marker. However, the reverse is also true: in the Congo, there have been complaints from readers that newspapers written in orthographies without tone marking are insufficiently legible.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}

Standard Central [[Thai language|Thai]] has five tones–mid, low, falling, high and rising–often indicated respectively by the numbers zero, one, two, three and four. The [[Thai alphabet]] is an [[abugida|alphasyllabary]], which specifies the tone unambiguously. Tone is indicated by an interaction of the initial consonant of a syllable, the vowel length, the final consonant (if present), and sometimes a tone mark. A particular tone mark may denote different tones depending on the initial consonant. The [[Shan alphabet]], derived from the [[Burmese alphabet|Burmese script]], has five tone letters: {{shn|ႇ}}, {{shn|ႈ}}, {{shn|း}}, {{shn|ႉ}}, {{shn|ႊ}}; a sixth tone is unmarked.

[[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]] uses the Latin alphabet and its six tones are marked by letters with [[diacritic]]s above or below a certain vowel. Basic notation for Vietnamese tones are as follows:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin:1em auto 1em auto"
|+ Tones of Vietnamese
! align="center" | ''Name''
! align="center" | ''Contour''
! align="center" | ''Diacritic''
! align="center" | ''Example''
|-
|ngang
| mid level, {{IPA|˧}}
|not marked
|a
|-
|huyền
| low falling, {{IPA|˨˩}}
|[[grave accent]]
|à
|-
|sắc
| high rising, {{IPA|˧˥}}
|[[acute accent]]
|á
|-
|hỏi
| dipping, {{IPA|˧˩˧}}
|[[hook above]]
|ả
|-
|ngã
| creaky rising, {{IPA|˧ˀ˦˥}}
|[[tilde]]
|ã
|-
|nặng
| creaky falling, {{IPA|˨˩ˀ}}
|[[dot (diacritic)|dot below]]
|ạ
|}

The Latin-based [[Hmong language|Hmong]] and [[Iu Mien language|Iu Mien]] alphabets use full letters for tones. In Hmong, one of the eight tones (the {{IPA|˧}} tone) is left unwritten while the other seven are indicated by the letters ''b, m, d, j, v, s, g'' at the end of the syllable. Since Hmong has no phonemic syllable-final consonants, there is no ambiguity. That system enables Hmong speakers to type their language with an ordinary Latin-letter keyboard without having to resort to diacritics. In the [[Iu Mien language|Iu Mien]], the letters ''v, c, h, x, z'' indicate tones but unlike Hmong, it also has final consonants written before the tone.

The [[Standard Zhuang]] and [[Zhuang languages]] used to use a unique set of six "tone letters" based on the shapes of numbers, but slightly modified, to depict what tone a syllable was in. This was replaced in 1982 with the use of normal letters in the same manner, like Hmong.

The syllabary of the [[Nuosu language]] depicts tone in a unique manner, having separate glyphs for each tone other than for the mid-rising tone, which is denoted by the addition of a diacritic. Take the difference between ꉬ nge [ŋɯ³³], and ꉫ ngex [ŋɯ³⁴]. In romanisation, the letters t, x, and p are used to demarcate tone. As codas are forbidden in Nuosu there is no ambiguity.

==<span id="Origin"></span> Origin and development==
{{more citations needed section|date=March 2017}}
{{Sound change}}

[[André-Georges Haudricourt]] established that Vietnamese tone originated in earlier consonantal contrasts and suggested similar mechanisms for Chinese.<ref>{{harvp|Haudricourt|1954}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Haudricourt|1961}}</ref> It is now widely held that Old Chinese did not have phonemically contrastive tone.{{sfnp|Haudricourt|2017}} The historical origin of tone is called '''tonogenesis''', a term coined by [[James Matisoff]].

===Tone as an areal feature===
Tone is sometimes an [[areal feature|areal]] rather than a [[Genetic relationship (linguistics)|phylogenetic]] feature. That is to say, a language may acquire tones through bilingualism if influential neighbouring languages are tonal or if speakers of a tonal language [[language shift|shift]] to the language in question and bring their tones with them. The process is referred to as '''contact-induced tonogenesis''' by linguists.{{sfnp||Kirby|Brunelle|2017}} In other cases, tone may arise spontaneously and surprisingly fast: the dialect of [[Cherokee language|Cherokee]] in Oklahoma has tone, but the dialect in North Carolina does not, even though they were only [[Trail of Tears|separated]] in 1838. [[Hong Kong English]] is tonal, a result of the contact between non-tonal [[British English]] with [[Hong Kong Cantonese]], a tonal language;<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Yeung |first1=Ping Hei |title=Contact-induced tonogenesis in Hong Kong English |journal=Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences |date=2023 |url=https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/icphs-proceedings/ICPhS2023/full_papers/440.pdf |access-date=19 February 2025}}</ref><ref name="Wee_2008">{{cite journal |last1=Wee |first1=Lian‐Hee |title=Phonological patterns in the Englishes of Singapore and Hong Kong |journal=World Englishes |date=August 2008 |volume=27 |issue=3-4 |pages=480–501 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-971X.2008.00580.x}}</ref> a similar process of tonogenesis has happened in [[Singapore English]], although under slightly different conditions of linguistic contact, resulting in different tonal outcomes.<ref name="Wee_2008" />

====Examples====
Tone arose in the [[Athabascan languages]] at least twice, in a patchwork of two systems. In some languages, such as [[Navajo language|Navajo]], syllables with glottalized consonants (including glottal stops) in the [[syllable coda]] developed low tones, whereas in others, such as [[Slavey language|Slavey]], they developed high tones, so that the two tonal systems are almost mirror images of each other. Syllables without glottalized codas developed the opposite tone. For example, high tone in Navajo and low tone in Slavey are due to contrast with the tone triggered by the glottalization.

Other Athabascan languages, namely those in western Alaska (such as [[Koyukon language|Koyukon]]) and the Pacific coast (such as [[Hupa language|Hupa]]), did not develop tone. Thus, the Proto-Athabascan word ''{{IPA|*tuː}}'' ('water') is toneless ''{{IPA|toː}}'' in Hupa, high-tone ''{{IPA|tó}}'' in Navajo, and low-tone ''tù'' in Slavey; while Proto-Athabascan ''{{IPA|*-ɢʊtʼ}}'' ('knee') is toneless ''{{IPA|-ɢotʼ}}'' in Hupa, low-tone ''{{IPA|-ɡòd}}'' in Navajo, and high-tone ''{{IPA|-ɡóʔ}}'' in Slavey. {{Harvcoltxt|Kingston|2005}} provides a phonetic explanation for the opposite development of tone based on the two different ways of producing glottalized consonants with either [[tense voice]] on the preceding vowel, which tends to produce a high [[fundamental frequency]], or [[creaky voice]], which tends to produce a low fundamental frequency. Languages with "stiff" glottalized consonants and tense voice developed high tone on the preceding vowel and those with "slack" glottalized consonants with creaky voice developed low tone.

The [[Bantu languages]] also have "mirror" tone systems in which the languages in the northwest corner of the Bantu area have the opposite tones of other Bantu languages.

Three [[Algonquian languages]] developed tone independently of one another and of neighboring languages: [[Cheyenne language|Cheyenne]], [[Arapaho language|Arapaho]], and [[Kickapoo language|Kickapoo]]. In Cheyenne, tone arose via vowel contraction; the long vowels of Proto-Algonquian contracted into high-pitched vowels in Cheyenne while the short vowels became low-pitched. In Kickapoo, a vowel with a following [h] acquired a low tone, and this tone later extended to all vowels followed by a fricative. In [[Afrikaans]] the glottal fricative also lowers the tone of surrounding vowels.

In [[Mohawk language|Mohawk]], a glottal stop can disappear in a combination of [[morpheme]]s, leaving behind a long falling tone. Note that it has the reverse effect of the postulated rising tone in [[Cantonese]] or [[Middle Chinese]], derived from a lost final glottal stop.

In [[Korean language|Korean]], a 2013 study which compared voice recordings of Seoul speech from 1935 and 2005 found that in recent years, [[Fortis and lenis|lenis consonants]] (ㅂㅈㄷㄱ), [[aspirated consonant]]s (ㅍㅊㅌㅋ) and fortis consonants (ㅃㅉㄸㄲ) were shifting from a distinction via [[voice onset time]] to that of pitch change, and suggests that the modern [[Seoul dialect]] is currently undergoing tonogenesis.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Yoonjung |last1=Kang|first2=Sungwoo|last2=Han|date=September 2013 |title=Tonogenesis in early Contemporary Seoul Korean: A longitudinal case study|journal=Lingua|volume=134 |pages=62–74|doi=10.1016/j.lingua.2013.06.002}}</ref> These sound shifts still show variations among different speakers, suggesting that the transition is still ongoing.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Mi-Ryoung |last1=Kim|date=2013|title=Tonogenesis in contemporary Korean with special reference to the onset-tone interaction and the loss of a consonant opposition|journal=The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America |volume=133 |issue=3570 |page=3570|doi=10.1121/1.4806535|bibcode=2013ASAJ..133.3570K}}</ref> Among 141 examined Seoul speakers, these pitch changes were originally initiated by females born in the 1950s, and have almost reached completion in the speech of those born in the 1990s.<ref>{{cite thesis|type=PhD |first1=Sunghye|last1=Cho|date=2017|title=Development of pitch contrast and Seoul Korean intonation|publisher=University of Pennsylvania |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319291457 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029072543/https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sunghye_Cho2/publication/319291457_Development_of_Pitch_Contrast_and_Seoul_Korean_Intonation_Copyright/links/5d51c9b292851cd046b6c422/Development-of-Pitch-Contrast-and-Seoul-Korean-Intonation-Copyright.pdf|archive-date=October 29, 2020}}</ref>

===Tonogenesis===

====Triggers of tonogenesis====

{{More citations needed section|date=July 2020}}

"There is tonogenetic potential in various series of phonemes: glottalized vs. plain consonants, unvoiced vs. voiced, aspirated vs. unaspirated, geminates vs. simple (...), and even among vowels".{{sfnp|Michaud|Sands|2020}} Very often, tone arises as an effect of the [[Phonological change#Loss|loss]] or [[Phonological change#Merger|merger]] of consonants. In a nontonal language, [[voiced consonant]]s commonly cause following vowels to be pronounced at a lower pitch than other consonants. That is usually a minor phonetic detail of voicing. However, if consonant voicing is subsequently lost, that incidental pitch difference may be left over to carry the distinction that the voicing previously carried (a process called [[transphonologization]]) and thus becomes meaningful ([[Phonemic contrast|phonemic]]).{{sfnp|Kingston|2011|pp=2304–2310}}

This process happened in the [[Punjabi language]]: the Punjabi [[breathy voice|murmured]] (voiced aspirate) consonants have disappeared and left tone in their wake. If the murmured consonant was at the beginning of a word, it left behind a low tone; at the end, it left behind a high tone. If there was no such consonant, the pitch was unaffected; however, the unaffected words are limited in pitch and did not interfere with the low and high tones. That produced a tone of its own, mid tone. The historical connection is so regular that Punjabi is still written as if it had murmured consonants, and tone is not marked. The written consonants tell the reader which tone to use.{{sfnp|Bhatia|1975}}

Similarly, final [[fricative]]s or other consonants may phonetically affect the pitch of preceding vowels, and if they then [[lenition|weaken]] to {{IPA|[h]}} and finally disappear completely, the difference in pitch, now a true difference in tone, carries on in their stead.{{sfnp|Kingston|2011|pp=2310–2314}} This was the case with Chinese. Two of the three tones of [[Middle Chinese]], the "rising" and the "departing" tones, arose as the [[Old Chinese]] final consonants {{IPA|/ʔ/}} and {{IPA|/s/ → /h/}} disappeared, while syllables that ended with neither of these consonants were interpreted as carrying the third tone, "even". Most varieties descending from Middle Chinese were further affected by a [[tone split]] in which each tone divided in two depending on whether the initial consonant was voiced. Vowels following a voiced consonant ([[depressor consonant]]) acquired a lower tone as the voicing lost its distinctiveness.{{sfnp|Kingston|2011|p=2311}}

The same changes affected many other languages in the same area, and at around the same time (AD 1000–1500). The tone split, for example, also occurred in [[Thai language|Thai]] and [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]].

In general, voiced initial consonants lead to low tones while vowels after aspirated consonants acquire a high tone. When final consonants are lost, a glottal stop tends to leave a preceding vowel with a high or rising tone (although glottalized vowels tend to be low tone so if the glottal stop causes vowel glottalization, that will tend to leave behind a low vowel). A final fricative tends to leave a preceding vowel with a low or falling tone. Vowel phonation also frequently develops into tone, as can be seen in the case of Burmese.

====Stages of tonogenesis====
1. The table below is the process of tonogenesis in [[Hmong language|White Hmong]], described by [[Martha Ratliff]].<ref name="Ratliff 2015 p. ">{{cite book | last=Ratliff | first=Martha | editor-first1=Patrick | editor-first2=Joseph | editor-last1=Honeybone | editor-last2=Salmons | title=Oxford Handbooks Online | chapter=Tonoexodus, Tonogenesis, and Tone Change | publisher=Oxford University Press | date=2015-04-07 | doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199232819.013.021 | pages=245–261}}</ref><ref>Ratliff, Martha. (2017). [https://www.linguisticsociety.org/sites/default/files/e-learning/July%2014%20Tonology.pdf ''Structure of Hmong-Mien Languages Session 3: Tonology''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327102415/https://www.linguisticsociety.org/sites/default/files/e-learning/July%2014%20Tonology.pdf |date=2019-03-27  }}. Slides for the 2017 LSA Institute at University of Kentucky.</ref> The tone values described in the table are from Christina Esposito.<ref name="Esposito 2012 pp. 466–476">{{cite journal | last=Esposito | first=Christina M. | title=An acoustic and electroglottographic study of White Hmong tone and phonation | journal=Journal of Phonetics | publisher=Elsevier BV | volume=40 | issue=3 | year=2012 | issn=0095-4470 | doi=10.1016/j.wocn.2012.02.007 | pages=466–476}}</ref><ref name="Garellek Keating Esposito Kreiman 2013 pp. 1078–1089">{{cite journal | last1=Garellek | first1=Marc | last2=Keating | first2=Patricia | last3=Esposito | first3=Christina M. | last4=Kreiman | first4=Jody | title=Voice quality and tone identification in White Hmong | journal=The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America | publisher=Acoustical Society of America (ASA) | volume=133 | issue=2 | date=2013-01-30 | issn=0001-4966 | doi=10.1121/1.4773259 | pages=1078–1089| pmid=23363123 | pmc=3574099 | bibcode=2013ASAJ..133.1078G }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Tonogenesis in White Hmong
|-
| Atonal stage
| colspan="2" |CV
| colspan="2" |CVʔ
| colspan="2" |CVh
| colspan="2" |CVC<sub>vl</sub>
|-
| Tonogenesis
| colspan="2" |CV <sup>level</sup>
| colspan="2" |CV <sup>rising</sup>
| colspan="2" |CV <sup>falling</sup>
| colspan="2" |CVC<sub>vl</sub> <sup>atonal</sup>
|-
| Tone split || A1 <sup>upper</sup> || A2 <sup>lower</sup> || B1 <sup>upper</sup> || B2 <sup>lower</sup> || C1 <sup>upper</sup> || C2 <sup>lower</sup> || D1 <sup>upper</sup> || D2 <sup>lower</sup>
|-
| Current || {{IPA|[pɔ˦˥]}} || {{IPA|[pɔ˥˨]}} || {{IPA|[pɔ˨˦]}} || {{IPA|[pɔ˨]}} || {{IPA|[pɔ˧]}} || {{IPA|[pɔ̤˦˨]}} || -- || {{IPA|[pɔ̰˨˩]}}
|}

2. The table below shows the [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]] tonogenesis.<ref>{{Cite conference| publisher = Tokyo: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Institute for the Study of Foreign Studies, Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa| conference = Proceedings of the symposium “Crosslinguistic studies of tonal phenomena: Tonogenesis, Japanese Accentology, and Other Topics| pages = 3–31| last = Matisoff| first = James A| title = Tibeto-Burman tonology in an areal context| date = 1999}}</ref>{{sfnp|Haudricourt|2018}}<ref>{{Cite conference| last = Ferlus| first = Michel| title = The origin of tones in Viet-Muong| conference = Papers from the Eleventh Annual Conference of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 2001 | pages = 297–313 | date = 2004| s2cid = 194697589}}</ref> The tone values are taken from James Kirby.<ref name="Kirby 2010 pp. 3749–3757">{{cite journal | last=Kirby | first=James | title=Dialect experience in Vietnamese tone perception | journal=The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America | publisher=Acoustical Society of America (ASA) | volume=127 | issue=6 | year=2010 | issn=0001-4966 | doi=10.1121/1.3327793 | pages=3749–3757 | pmid=20550273 | bibcode=2010ASAJ..127.3749K | s2cid=8742491 | url=https://doi.org/10.1121/1.3327793 | hdl=20.500.11820/f30d8742-b13a-427c-9070-c131383b0cad | hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Vũ 1982 pp. 55-75 ">{{cite journal | first = Thanh Phương | last = Vũ | title=Phonetic Properties of Vietnamese Tones Across Dialects | journal=Papers in Southeast Asian Linguistics | number=8 | publisher=Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University | year = 1982 | doi=10.15144/PL-A62.55 | pages = 55–75 | url=http://sealang.net/archives/pl/pdf/PL-A62.55.pdf | access-date=2023-07-23 }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Tonogenesis in Vietnamese
|-
| Atonal stage
| colspan="2" |CV
| colspan="2" |CVx > CVʔ
| colspan="2" |CVs > CVh
|-
| Tonogenesis
| colspan="2" |CV <sup>mid</sup>
| colspan="2" |CV <sup>rising</sup>
| colspan="2" |CV <sup>falling</sup>
|-
| Tone split || A1 <sup>higher</sup> || A2 <sup>lower</sup> || B1 <sup>higher</sup> || B2 <sup>lower</sup> || C1 <sup>higher</sup> || C2 <sup>lower</sup>
|-
| Current || ngang {{IPA|/˦/}} || huyền {{IPA|/˨˩/}} || sắc {{IPA|/˨˦/}} || nặng {{IPA|/˨/}} || hỏi {{IPA|/˧˨/}} || ngã {{IPA|/˧˥/}}
|-
|}

3. The table below is the tonogenesis of [[Tai Dam language|Tai Dam]] (Black Tai). Displayed in the first row is the Proto-Southern Kra-Dai, as reconstructed by Norquest.<ref>{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |last=Norquest |first=Peter K. |title=A Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Hlai |oclc=659748425 |language=en |publisher=University of Arizona |date=2007 |url=https://arizona.aws.openrepository.com/handle/10150/194203 }}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |last=Pittayaporn |first=Pittayawat |title=The Phonology of Proto-Tai |publisher=Cornell University |hdl=1813/13855 |url=https://hdl.handle.net/1813/13855 |language=en }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Burusphat |first=Somsonge |date=2012-01-07 |title=Tones of Thai Song Varieties |journal=Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society  |volume=5 |pages=32–48 |hdl=1885/9118 |s2cid=29263300 |url=http://hdl.handle.net/1885/9118 |issn=1836-6821 |editor1-first=Paul |editor1-last=Sidwell |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Tonogenesis in Tai Dam
|-
| Proto-SKD
| colspan="2" |*∅
| colspan="2" |*-h
| colspan="2" |*-ʔ
| colspan="2" |*-ʔ͡C
|-
| Tonogenesis
| colspan="2" |level
| colspan="2" |rising
| colspan="2" |falling
| colspan="2" |
|-
| Tone split || A1 || A2 || B1 || B2 || C1 || C2 || D1 || D2
|-
| Current || {{IPA|/˨/}} || {{IPA|/˥/}} || {{IPA|/˦˥/}} || {{IPA|/˦/}} || {{IPA|/˨˩ʔ/}} || {{IPA|/˧˩ʔ/}} || {{IPA|/˦˥/}} || {{IPA|/˦/}}
|-
|}

4. The table below shows the [[Chinese language]] tonogenesis.<ref name="Ratliff 2002 p. 29">{{cite journal | last=Ratliff | first=Martha | title=Timing Tonogenesis: Evidence from Borrowing | journal=Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society | publisher=Linguistic Society of America | volume=28 | issue=2 | date=2002-06-25 | issn=2377-1666 | doi=10.3765/bls.v28i2.1043 | pages=29–41 | url=https://journals.linguisticsociety.org/proceedings/index.php/BLS/article/view/1043 | doi-access=free | url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Dai 1991">{{cite thesis |last=Dai |first=Yi-Chun |date=1991 |title=The phonological domain of tone in Chinese: Historical perspectives |degree=Master's |publisher=Simon Fraser University |url=https://summit.sfu.ca/item/4769 |s2cid=141736627 }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Tonogenesis in Chinese
|-
| Atonal stage
| colspan="2" |-∅, -N
| colspan="2" |-ʔ
| colspan="2" |-s
| colspan="2" |-p, -t, -k
|-
| Tonogenesis
| colspan="2" |平 píng (level)
| colspan="2" |上 shǎng (rising)
| colspan="2" |去 qù (departing)
| colspan="2" |入 rù (entering)
|-
| Tone split || A1 || A2 || B1 || B2 || C1 || C2 || D1 || D2
|-
|}

The tone values are listed below:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Tone Value of Modern Varieties of Chinese
|-
! Class !! SC<ref name="Huang">Huang, Bo-Rong & Liao, Xu-Dong. [黄伯荣,廖序东] (2002). ''Xiandai Hanyu'' [现代汉语] (3rd ed., vol. 1), pp. 85-86. Beijing: 高等教育出版社.</ref>!! TSH<ref name="Hakka">Hakka Affairs Council. (2018). Vocabulary for the Hakka Proficiency Test: Elementary (Sixian) [客語能力認證基本詞彙-初級(四縣腔)]. Available at https://elearning.hakka.gov.tw/ver2015 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327172449/https://elearning.hakka.gov.tw/ver2015/ |date=2019-03-27  }}</ref>!! THH<ref name="Hakka" /> !! XMM<ref name="Cihui">Peking University Department of Chinese Language and Literature [北京大学中国语言文学系]. (1995). ''Hanyu Fangyan Cihui'' [汉语方言词汇] (2nd ed.). Beijing: 语文出版社.</ref>!! FZM<ref name="Cihui" /> !! SZW<ref name="Huang" /> !! SXW<ref name="Huang" />
|-
| A1 || {{IPA|/˥/}} || {{IPA|/˨˦/}} || {{IPA|/˥˧/}} || {{IPA|/˥/}} || {{IPA|/˦/}} || {{IPA|/˦/}} || {{IPA|/˦˩/}}
|-
| A2 || {{IPA|/˧˥/}} || {{IPA|/˩/}} || {{IPA|/˥/}} || {{IPA|/˨˦/}} || {{IPA|/˥˨/}} || {{IPA|/˩˧/}} || {{IPA|/˩˥/}}
|-
| B1 || rowspan="2"|{{IPA|/˨˩˦/}} || rowspan="2"|{{IPA|/˧˩/}} || rowspan="2"|{{IPA|/˨˦/}} || rowspan="2"|{{IPA|/˥˩/}} || rowspan="2"|{{IPA|/˧˩/}} || rowspan="2"|{{IPA|/˥˨/}} || {{IPA|/˥/}}
|-
| B2 || {{IPA|/˨/}}
|-
| C1 || rowspan="2"|{{IPA|/˥˩/}} || rowspan="2"|{{IPA|/˥˥/}} || {{IPA|/˩/}} || {{IPA|/˩/}} || {{IPA|/˨˩˧/}} || {{IPA|/˦˩˨/}} || {{IPA|/˦/}}
|-
| C2 || {{IPA|/˧/}} || {{IPA|/˧/}} || {{IPA|/˨˦˨/}} || {{IPA|/˧˩/}} || {{IPA|/˧˩/}}
|-
| D1 || rowspan="2"|{{IPA|/˥, ˧˥<br />˨˩˦, ˥˩/}} || {{IPA|/˨/}} || {{IPA|/˥/}} || {{IPA|/˧˨/}} || {{IPA|/˨˧/}} || {{IPA|/˥/}} || {{IPA|/˥/}}
|-
| D2 || {{IPA|/˥/}} || {{IPA|/˨/}} || {{IPA|/˥/}} || {{IPA|/˦/}} || {{IPA|/˨/}} || {{IPA|/˧˨/}}
|}
#SC= [[Standard Chinese]] (Putonghua)
#TSH= [[Sixian dialect|Taiwanese Sixian Hakka]]
#THH= [[Hailu dialect|Taiwanese Hailu Hakka]]
#XMM= [[Amoy dialect|Xiamen Min]] (Amoy)
#FZM= [[Fuzhou dialect|Fuzhou Min]]
#SZW= [[Suzhou dialect|Suzhou Wu]]
#SXW= [[Shaoxing dialect|Shaoxing Wu]]

The tones across all [[Variety (linguistics)|varieties]] (or [[dialect]]s) of Chinese correspond to each other, although they may not correspond to each other perfectly. Moreover, listed above are citation tones, but in actual conversations, obligatory [[tone sandhi|sandhi]] rules will reshape them. The Sixian and Hailu Hakka in [[Taiwan]] are famous for their near-regular and opposite pattern (of pitch height). Both will be compared with [[Standard Chinese]] below.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Word !! Hailu Hakka !! Standard Chinese !! Sixian Hakka
|-
| 老人家 'elder people' || lo<sup>LR</sup> ngin<sup>HL</sup> ga<sup>HF</sup> || lao<sup>LF</sup> ren<sup>MR</sup> jia<sup>HL</sup><br />(→ lao<sup>LF</sup>renjia) || lo<sup>MF</sup> ngin<sup>LL</sup> ga<sup>LR</sup>
|-
| 碗公 'bowl' || von<sup>LR</sup> gung<sup>HF</sup> || wan<sup>LF</sup> gong<sup>HL</sup> || von<sup>MF</sup> gung<sup>LR</sup>
|-
| 車站 'bus stop' || cha<sup>HF</sup> zham<sup>LL</sup> || che<sup>HL</sup> zhan<sup>HF</sup> || ca<sup>LR</sup> zam<sup>HL</sup>
|-
| 自行車 'bicycle' || cii<sup>ML</sup> hang<sup>HL</sup> cha<sup>HF</sup> || zi<sup>HF</sup> xing<sup>MR</sup> che<sup>HL</sup> || cii<sup>HL</sup> hang<sup>LL</sup> ca<sup>LR</sup>
|-
|}
#H: high; M: mid; L: low;
#L: level; R: rising; F: falling
5. The table below shows Punjabi tonogenesis in bisyllabic words. Unlike the above four examples, Punjab was not under the east Asian tone [[sprachbund]], instead belonging to a separate one in its own area of Punjab. As well, unlike the above languages, which developed tone from syllable endings, Punjab developed tone from its voiced aspirated stops losing their aspiration.<ref>{{Cite thesis|last=Bowden|first=Andrea Lynn|date=2012-03-07|title=Punjabi Tonemics and the Gurmukhi Script: A Preliminary Study|url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2983/|type=MA thesis|publisher=Brigham Young University|access-date=2022-08-19 |archive-date=2022-08-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220819182103/https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2983/|url-status=live}}</ref> Tone does occur in monosyllabic words as well, but are not discussed in the chart below.
{| class="wikitable"
|+Tonogenesis in Punjabi{{Incomplete table|date=August 2021}}
|Atonal stage
|C(V)VC̬ʰ(V)V
| colspan="4" |C̬ʰ(V)VC(V)V
|C(V)VC(V)V
|-
| rowspan="2" |Tonogenesis
| rowspan="2" |C̬ʰ → V́C̬V̀

/ V_V
| colspan="2" |C̬ʰVC(V)V
| colspan="2" |C̬ʰVVC(V)V
| rowspan="2" | -
|-
| colspan="2" |C̬ʰ → T̥V, R̬V / #_V
| colspan="2" |C̬ʰVV → T̥VV̀, R̬VV̀ / #_VV
|-
|Result
|C(V)V́C̬(V)V̀
|T̥VC(V)V
|R̬VC(V)V
|T̥VV̀C(V)V
|R̬VV̀C(V)V
|C(V)VC(V)V
|}
(C = any consonant, T = non-retroflex stop, R = retroflex stop; C̬ = voiced, C̥ = unvoiced; Cʰ = aspirated; V = Neutral tone, V́ = Rising tone, V̀ = Falling tone)

==List of tonal languages==
===Africa===
Most languages of [[Sub-Saharan Africa]] are members of the [[Niger–Congo languages|Niger-Congo family]], which is predominantly tonal; notable exceptions are [[Swahili language|Swahili]] (in the southeast), most languages spoken in the [[Senegambia]] (among them [[Wolof language|Wolof]], [[Serer language|Serer]] and [[Cangin languages]]), and [[Fula language|Fulani]]. The Afroasiatic languages include both tonal ([[Chadic languages|Chadic]], [[Omotic languages|Omotic]]) and nontonal ([[Semitic languages|Semitic]], [[Berber languages|Berber]], [[Egyptian language|Egyptian]], and most [[Cushitic languages|Cushitic]]) branches.{{sfnp|Yip|2002|p=131}} All three [[Khoisan languages|Khoisan]] language families—[[Khoe languages|Khoe]], [[Kx'a languages|Kx'a]] and [[Tuu languages|Tuu]]—are tonal. Most languages of the [[Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan family]] are tonal.

===Asia===
{{See also|Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area}}
Numerous tonal languages are widely spoken in [[China]] and [[Mainland Southeast Asia]]. [[Sino-Tibetan languages]] (including [[Meitei language|Meitei-Lon]], [[Burmese language|Burmese]], [[Mog language|Mog]] and most [[varieties of Chinese]]; though some, such as [[Shanghainese]], are only marginally tonal<ref name="Chen 2003 p. 74">{{cite book | last=Chen | first=Zhongmin | title=Studies on Dialects in the Shanghai Area | date=2003 | isbn=978-3-89586-978-5 | page=74 |publisher=LINCOM }}</ref>) and [[Kra–Dai languages]] (including [[Thai language|Thai]] and [[Lao language|Lao]]) are mostly tonal. The [[Hmong–Mien languages]] are some of the most tonal languages in the world, with as many as twelve phonemically distinct tones. [[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]] and [[Austroasiatic]] languages are mostly non-tonal, with a number of exceptions, e.g. [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]] (Austroasiatic), [[Cèmuhî language|Cèmuhî]] and [[Yabem language|Yabem]] (Austronesian).{{sfnp|Yip|2002|pp=172–73}} Tones in [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]]<ref>{{cite journal|last1= Alves|first1=Mark|title=Tonal Features and the Development of Vietnamese Tones|journal=Working Papers in Linguistics: Department of University of Hawaii at Manoa|date= 1995|volume=27|pages=1–13|url= https://www.academia.edu/download/30495045/Alves_Vietnamese_Tones_Features.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.academia.edu/download/30495045/Alves_Vietnamese_Tones_Features.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|quote=Clearly, language contact with Chinese had something to do with the development of Vietnamese tones, as the tonal system of Vietnamese corresponds quite directly to the eight-way system of Middle Chinese}}{{dead link|date=July 2022|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> and [[Tsat language|Tsat]] may result from [[Chinese language|Chinese]] influence on both languages. There were tones in [[Middle Korean]]<ref name="Sohn2001">{{cite book| first = Ho-Min | last = Sohn|title=The Korean Language|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Sx6gdJIOcoQC&pg=PA48|date=29 March 2001|publisher= Cambridge University Press |isbn= 978-0-521-36943-5|pages= 48–}}</ref><ref name= "LeeRamsey2000">{{cite book| first1 = Iksop | last1 = Lee| first2 =S. Robert | last2 = Ramsey|title=The Korean Language|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=nVgr2BkwAdkC&pg=PA315|year=2000 |publisher=SUNY Press|isbn= 978-0-7914-4832-8 |pages= 315–}}</ref><ref name= "LeeRamsey2011">{{cite book|first1 =Ki-Moon | last1 = Lee| first2 =S. Robert | last2 = Ramsey|title=A History of the Korean Language|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=2AmspKX3beoC&pg=PA168|date=3 March 2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-49448-9|pages= 168–}}</ref> and a few tones in Japanese.<ref>Bloch, Bernard. 1950. Studies in Colloquial Japanese. Part 4: Phonemics. Language 26. 86–125.</ref><ref>Martin, Samuel E. 1952. Morphophonemics of Standard Colloquial Japanese. (Language Dissertation, 47.) Baltimore: Linguistic Society of America.</ref><ref>Jorden, Eleanor Harz. 1963. Beginning Japanese, Part 1. (Yale Linguistic Series, 5.) New Haven: Yale University Press.</ref> Other languages represented in the region, such as [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]] and [[Uyghur language|Uyghur]] belong to language families that do not contain any tonality as defined here. In South Asia tonal languages are rare, but some [[Indo-Aryan languages]] have tonality, including [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]], [[Haryanvi language|Haryanvi]], [[Kauravi dialect|Khariboli]], and [[Dogri language|Dogri]],<ref>{{cite book|title=Lexical Anaphors and Pronouns in Selected South Asian Languages|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|year=1999|isbn= 978-3-11-014388-1|editor1-last=Lust|editor1-first=Barbara|page=637|editor2-last=Wali|editor2-first= Kashi|editor3-last=Gair|editor3-first=James|editor4-last= Subbarao|editor4-first =K. V.|display-editors= 3}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.omniglot.com/writing/gurmuki.htm|title= Punjabi (ਪੰਜਾਬੀ/پنجابی)|editor-last= Ager|editor-first= Simon|website= Omniglot|access-date= January 30, 2015|archive-date= 2011-04-29 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110429180826/http://www.omniglot.com/writing/gurmuki.htm|url-status= live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.cle.org.pk/Publication/Crulp_report/CR02_21E.pdf|title=Phonemic Inventory of Punjabi|last= Karamat|first=Nayyara|publisher= Center for Research in Urdu Language Processing|access-date=January 30, 2015|archive-date=2015-09-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923204619/http://www.cle.org.pk/Publication/Crulp_report/CR02_21E.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Crossing Boundaries|last=Sen|first=Geeti|publisher=Orient Blackswan|year= 1997 |isbn=978-81-250-1341-9|page= 132 |quote=Possibly, Punjabi is the only major South Asian language that has this kind of tonal character. There does seem to have been some speculation among scholars about the possible origin of Punjabi's tone-language character but without any final and convincing answer.}}</ref> [[Sylheti language|Sylheti]],<ref>{{citation|last1=Raychoudhury|first1=Priti|last2=Mahanta|first2=Shakuntala|title=The three way tonal system of Sylheti|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341623819_The_three_way_tonal_system_of_Sylheti|year=2020}}</ref> [[Chittagonian language|Chittagonian]], [[Rohingya language|Rohingya]], [[Noakhali language|Noakhailla]], [[Chakma language|Chakma]] as well as the [[Eastern Bengali]] dialects.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Pal|first=Animesh K.|date=1965|title= Phonemes of a Dacca Dialect of Eastern Bengali and the Importance of Tone|journal=Journal of the Asiatic Society|volume=VII|pages= 44–45 |quote= The tonal element in Panjabi as well as in Eastern Bengali has been noticed in respect of various new ways of treating the voiced aspirates and 'h'.}}</ref><ref>{{citation|last=Masica|first= Colin P.|title=The Indo-Aryan Languages|year=1991|publisher= Cambridge University Press|page=102|quote= Glottalization is often connected with tone and in the East Bengali cases seem to be related to the evolution of tone from the voiced aspirates.}}</ref>

===America===
A large number of North, South and Central American languages are tonal, including many of the [[Athabaskan languages]] of [[Alaska]] and the [[Southwestern United States|American Southwest]] (including [[Navajo language|Navajo]]),{{sfnp|Kingston|2005}} and the [[Oto-Manguean languages]] of Mexico. Among the [[Mayan languages]], which are mostly non-tonal, [[Yucatec Maya language|Yucatec]] (with the largest number of speakers), [[Uspantek language|Uspantek]], and one dialect of [[Tzotzil language|Tzotzil]] have developed tone systems. The [[Ticuna language]] of the western Amazon is perhaps the most tonal language of the Americas. Other languages of the western Amazon have fairly simple tone systems as well. However, although tone systems have been recorded for many American languages, little theoretical work has been completed for the characterization of their tone systems. In different cases, Oto-Manguean tone languages in Mexico have been found to possess tone systems similar to both Asian and African tone languages.{{sfnp|Yip|2002|pp=212–14}}

===Europe===
Norwegian<ref>{{Cite book |last=Marm |first=Ingvald |title=Teach Yourself Norwegian |publisher=The English Universities Press Ltd |year=1967 |isbn=978-0-82888376-4 |edition=2nd |location=Aylesbury, England |pages= 13–14}}</ref> and Swedish share tonal language features via the 'Single' and 'Double' tones, which can be marked in phonetic descriptions by either a preceding ' (single tone) or ៴ (double tone). The single tone starts low and rises to a high note ({{IPA|˩˦}}). The double tone starts higher than the single tone, falls, and then rises again to a higher pitch than the start ({{IPA|˨˩˦}}), similar to the Mandarin third tone (as in the word ''nǐ'', {{IPA|/ni˨˩˦/}}).

Examples in Norwegian: 'bønder (farmers) and ៴bønner (beans) are, apart from the intonation, phonetically identical (despite the spelling difference). Similarly, and with in this case identical spelling, 'tømmer (timber) and ៴tømmer (present tense of verb tømme – to empty) are distinguished only through intonation.

The Scandinavian tone system is more correctly described as a pitch accent system because it only appears in combination with stress. It became phonemic because the number of syllables in certain words changed since the Old Norse period. A former one-syllable word which developed an additional syllable because of an epenthetic vowel or an added suffix kept its one-syllable pronunciation in contrast with a former two-syllable word that it was otherwise homophonous with. It previously also existed in Danish but has in nearly all forms of Danish developed into [[stød]] which is a rather a difference in vowel [[phonation]] but morphologically also behaves like a pitch accent.

A pitch accent system also developed within the Balto-Slavic languages and still exists in Lithuanian, Latvian (with one tone resembling the Danish stød), Slovenian and Serbo-Croatian.

According to Watson, [[Scouse]] contrasts certain tones,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Watson |first=Kevin |title=Illustrations of the IPA: Liverpool English |publisher=Journal of the International Phonetic Association 37 |year=2007 |edition=Cambridge University Press |pages=351–360}}</ref> and some forms of [[Rhineland]] German can also be described as having a pitch accent system.

===Summary===
Languages that are tonal include:
* Over 50% of the [[Sino-Tibetan languages]]. All [[Sinitic languages]] (most prominently, the [[Varieties of Chinese|Chinese languages]]), some [[Tibetic languages]], including the standard languages of [[Tibet]] and [[Bhutan]], and [[Burmese language|Burmese]].
* In the [[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]] family, [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]] and other members of the [[Vietic languages]] family are tonal. Other branches of this family, such as [[Mon language|Mon]], [[Khmer language|Khmer]], and the [[Munda languages]], are entirely non-tonal.
* Some of the [[Malayo-Polynesian languages|Malayo-Polynesian]] branch of [[Austronesian languages]] in [[New Caledonia]] (such as [[Paicî language|Paicî]] and [[Cèmuhî language|Cèmuhî]]) and [[New Guinea]] (such as [[Mor language (Austronesian)|Mor]], [[Ma'ya language|Ma'ya]] and [[Matbat language|Matbat]]) plus some of the [[Chamic languages]] such as [[Tsat language|Tsat]] in [[Hainan]] are tonal. 
* The entire [[Kra–Dai languages|Kra–Dai]] family, spoken mainly in China, Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos, and including [[Thai language|Thai]] and [[Lao language|Lao]], is tonal.
* The entire [[Hmong–Mien languages|Hmong–Mien]] family is highly tonal.
* Many [[Afroasiatic languages]] in the Chadic and Omotic branches have tone systems, including [[Hausa language|Hausa]].
* The vast majority of [[Niger–Congo languages]], such as [[Ewe language|Ewe]], [[Igbo language|Igbo]], [[Lingala language|Lingala]], [[Maninka language|Maninka]], [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]], and [[Zulu language|Zulu]], have tone systems. The [[Kru languages]] and [[Southern Mande languages]] have the most complex. Notable non-tonal Niger–Congo languages are [[Swahili language|Swahili]], [[Fula language|Fula]], and [[Wolof language|Wolof]].
* All [[Nilotic languages]] such as the [[Dinka language]], the [[Maa languages]], the [[Luo languages]] and [[Kalenjin languages]] have tone systems.
* All [[Khoisan languages]] in southern Africa have tone systems; some languages like [[Sandawe language|Sandawe]] have tone systems like that of Cantonese.
* Slightly more than half of the [[Athabaskan languages]], such as [[Navajo language|Navajo]], have tone systems (languages in California and Oregon, and a few in Alaska, excluded). The Athabaskan tone languages fall into two "mirror image" groups. That is, a word which has a high tone in one language will have a cognate with a low tone in another, and vice versa.
* [[Iroquoian languages]] like [[Mohawk language|Mohawk]] commonly have tone; the [[Cherokee language]] has the most extensive tonal inventory, with six tones, of which four are contours.<ref name= "Cherokee">{{cite thesis |last=Montgomery-Anderson |first=Brad |date=May 30, 2008 |title=A Reference Grammar of Oklahoma Cherokee |type=Ph.D. |publisher=University of Kansas |page=49 |url=http://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitstream/handle/1808/4212/umi-ku-2613_1.pdf;jsessionid=37CBA1DB07BC9860F19A7737A89B3F70?sequence=1 |access-date=2015-01-30  |archive-date=2016-03-16  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160316152954/https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitstream/handle/1808/4212/umi-ku-2613_1.pdf;jsessionid=37CBA1DB07BC9860F19A7737A89B3F70?sequence=1 |url-status=live }}</ref> Here the correlation between contour tone and simple syllable structures is clearly shown; Cherokee phonotactics permit only syllables of the structure (s)(C)V.
* All [[Oto-Manguean languages]] are tonal. In some cases, as with [[Mixtec languages|Mixtec]], tone system variations between dialects are sufficiently great to cause mutual unintelligibility.
* The [[Ticuna language]] of the western Amazon is strongly tonal. Various [[Arawakan languages]] have relatively basic tone systems. 
* Many languages of [[New Guinea]] like [[Siane language|Siane]] possess register tone systems.
* Some Indo-European languages (notably [[Swedish language|Swedish]], [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]], [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]], [[Latvian language|Latvian]], and [[Serbo-Croatian]]) as well as others possess what is termed [[pitch accent]], where only the stressed syllable of a word can have different contour tones; these are not always considered to be cases of tone language. However some languages, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family, are tonal such as [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]] and [[Dogri language|Dogri]].
** Some English dialects, such as [[Scouse|Liverpool]] and [[Ulster English#Belfast and surroundings|Belfast English]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=English intonation in the British Isles |url=http://www.phon.ox.ac.uk/files/apps/old_IViE/ |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=www.phon.ox.ac.uk}}</ref>
** Some European-based [[creole language]]s, such as [[Krio language|Krio]],<ref name="Finney 2004 pp. 221–236">{{cite book | last=Finney | first=Malcolm Awadajin | title=Creoles, Contact, and Language Change | chapter=10. Tone assignment on lexical items of English and African origin in Krio | series=Creole Language Library | publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company | publication-place=Amsterdam | year=2004 | volume=27 | issn=0920-9026 | doi=10.1075/cll.27.11fin | pages=221–236 | isbn=978-90-272-5249-4 |url=https://doi.org/10.1075/cll.27.11fin }}</ref> [[Saramaccan language|Saramaccan]] and [[Papiamento]], have tone from their African [[Stratum (linguistics)#Substratum|substratum]] languages.

In some cases, it is difficult to determine whether a language is tonal. For example, the [[Ket language]] of [[Siberia]] has been described as having up to eight tones by some investigators, as having four tones by others, but by some as having no tone at all. In cases such as these, the classification of a language as tonal may depend on the researcher's interpretation of what tone is. For instance, the Burmese language has phonetic tone, but each of its three tones is accompanied by a distinctive [[phonation]] (creaky, murmured or plain vowels). It could be argued either that the tone is incidental to the phonation, in which case Burmese would not be [[phoneme|phonemically]] tonal, or that the phonation is incidental to the tone, in which case it would be considered tonal. Something similar appears to be the case with Ket.

The 19th-century [[constructed language]] [[Solresol]] can consist of only tone, but unlike all natural tonal languages, Solresol's tone is absolute, rather than relative, and no tone sandhi occurs.

==See also==
* [[Meeussen's rule]]
* [[Musical language]]
* [[Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin|35em}}
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* {{ cite book | last = Chen | first = Matthew Y. | year = 2000 | title = Tone sandhi: Patterns across Chinese dialects | location = Cambridge, England | publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]] | isbn = 978-0-521-65272-8 }}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Clements |editor1-first=George N. |editor-link1=Nick Clements |editor2-last=Goldsmith |editor2-first=John |editor2-link=John Goldsmith (linguist) |year=1984 |title=Autosegmental Studies in Bantu Tone |location=Berlin |publisher=Mouton de Gruyer}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Fromkin |editor-first=Victoria A. |editor-link=Victoria Fromkin |year=1978 |title=Tone: A Linguistic Survey |location=New York |publisher=Academic Press}}
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** {{cite journal | last = Haudricourt | first = André-Georges | year = 1954 | title = De l'origine des tons en vietnamien | journal = Journal Asiatique | volume = 242 | pages = 69–82 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Haudricourt |first1=André-Georges |translator=Guillaume Jacques |title=How to reconstruct Old Chinese (translation of: Comment reconstruire le chinois archaïque) |journal=Problèmes de phonologie diachronique |date=2017 |pages=161–182 |url=https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01631479/document |access-date=2021-02-15 |archive-date=2022-02-09  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220209040455/https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01631479/document |url-status=live }} Reprinted (with additions). 
** {{cite journal|ref=none|last1=Haudricourt|first1=André-Georges|title=Comment reconstruire le chinois archaïque|journal=Word|date=1954|volume=10|issue=2/3|pages=351–364|doi=10.1080/00437956.1954.11659532|doi-access=free}}
* {{cite journal | last = Haudricourt | first = André-Georges | year = 1961 | title = Bipartition et tripartition des systèmes de tons dans quelques langues d'Extrême-Orient | journal = Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris | volume = 56 | number = 1 |pages = 163–180 }}
** {{cite book |ref=none |last=Haudricourt |first=André-Georges |translator=Christopher Court |chapter=Two-way and Three-way Splitting of Tonal Systems in Some Far Eastern Languages |pages=58–86 |editor1=Jimmy G. Harris |editor2=Richard B. Noss |title=Tai phonetics and phonology |year=1972 |url=http://sealang.net/sala/archives/pdf4/haudricourt1972two.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://sealang.net/sala/archives/pdf4/haudricourt1972two.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |access-date=2021-02-15 |location=Bangkok |publisher=Central Institute of English Language, Mahidol University }} Translation of {{harvp|Haudricourt|1961}}.
* {{Cite journal | doi = 10.2307/412518 | last1 = Hombert | first1 = Jean-Marie | author-link2 = John Ohala | last2 = Ohala | first2 = John J. | last3 = Ewan | first3 = William G. | year = 1979 | title = Phonetic explanations for the development of tones| journal = Language | volume = 55 | issue = 1| pages = 37–58 | jstor = 412518 }}
* {{cite conference|last=Hyman |first=Larry M. |date=2007a |title=There is no pitch-accent prototype |conference=2007 LSA Meeting. Anaheim, CA.}}
* {{cite book |last=Hyman |first=Larry M. |year=2007b |chapter=DRAFT: Tone: Is it Different? |title=The Handbook of Phonological Theory |edition=2nd |editor1=John Goldsmith |editor2=Jason Riggle |editor3=Alan Yu |url=http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/phonlab/annual_report/documents/2007/Hyman_Blackwell_Tone_PLAR.pdf |publisher=Blackwell |via=UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report (2007) |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120728084737/http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/phonlab/annual_report/documents/2007/Hyman_Blackwell_Tone_PLAR.pdf |archive-date=2012-07-28 }}
* {{cite journal|last=Hyman|first=Larry M.|author-link=Larry M. Hyman|title=How (not) to do phonological typology: The case of pitch accent|journal=Language Sciences|volume=31|issue=2–3|year=2009|pages=213–238|doi=10.1016/j.langsci.2008.12.007|s2cid=10431925|url=http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/phonlab/annual_report/documents/2007/Hyman_Pitch-Accent.pdf|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/phonlab/annual_report/documents/2007/Hyman_Pitch-Accent.pdf|archive-date=2022-10-09|url-status=live}}
* {{cite journal |last=International Phonetic Association |year=1989 |title=Report on the 1989 Kiel Convention |journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=67–80 |doi=10.1017/S0025100300003868 |jstor=44526032|s2cid=249412330 }}
* {{cite book | last = Kingston | first = John | year = 2005 | chapter = The phonetics of Athabaskan tonogenesis | editor1-first = Sharon | editor1-last = Hargus | editor2-first = Keren | editor2-last = Rice | title = Athabaskan Prosody | pages = 137–184 | location = Amsterdam | publisher = John Benjamins Publishing | isbn = 9789027285294 | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=RUo6AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA137 }}
* {{cite book | last = Kingston | first = John | year = 2011 | chapter = Tonogenesis | editor1 = Marc van Oostendorp | editor2 = Colin J Ewen | editor3 = Elizabeth Hume | editor4 = Keren Rice | title = The Blackwell companion to phonology, Volume 4: Phonological interfaces | pages = 2304–2333 | location = Chichester | publisher = Wiley-Blackwell | chapter-url = https://blogs.umass.edu/jkingstn/files/2019/04/kingstonTonogenesis2011BlackwellCompanionPhonology.pdf | access-date = 2020-07-15  | archive-date = 2021-12-10  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211210101322/https://blogs.umass.edu/jkingstn/files/2019/04/kingstonTonogenesis2011BlackwellCompanionPhonology.pdf | url-status = live }}
* {{cite book |last1=Kirby |first1=James |last2=Brunelle |first2=Marc |year=2017 |chapter=Southeast Asian Tone in Areal Perspective |pages=703–731 |editor=Raymond Hickey |editor-link=Raymond Hickey |title=The Cambridge Handbook of Areal Linguistics |series=Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/9781107279872.027 |hdl=20.500.11820/b1f8fff3-64e5-4504-8a49-7ac2ff1e1293 |isbn=9781107279872 |s2cid=5036805 |url=https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/southeast-asian-tone-in-areal-perspective(b1f8fff3-64e5-4504-8a49-7ac2ff1e1293).html }}
* {{cite book | last = Maddieson | first =Ian | author-link = Ian Maddieson | year = 1978 | contribution = Universals of tone | editor-first = J. H. | editor-last = Greenberg | title = Universals of human language: Phonology | volume = 2 | location = Stanford |publisher = Stanford University Press}}
* {{cite journal | last1 = Michaud | first1 = Alexis | author-link1 = Alexis Michaud | last2 = Vaissière | first2 = Jacqueline | year = 2015 | title = Tone and intonation: introductory notes and practical recommendations | journal = KALIPHO - Kieler Arbeiten zur Linguistik und Phonetik | volume = 3 | pages = 43–80 | url = https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01091477v3/document | access-date = 2018-01-12  | archive-date = 2020-11-09  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201109070902/https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01091477v3/document | url-status = live }} 
* {{cite book | last1 = Michaud | first1 = Alexis | author-link1 = Alexis Michaud | last2 = Sands | first2 = Bonny | year = 2020 | title = Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics | chapter = Tonogenesis | editor-last = Aronoff | editor-first = Mark | location = Oxford | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 9780199384655 | doi = 10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.748 | chapter-url = https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-02519305/document | access-date = 2020-09-06  | archive-date = 2022-02-09  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220209040452/https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-02519305/document | url-status = live }} 
* {{cite book | last = Odden | first = David | author-link = David Odden | year = 1995 | contribution = Tone: African languages | editor-first = J. | editor-last = Goldsmith | title = Handbook of Phonological Theory | location = Oxford | publisher = Basil Blackwell}}
* {{cite book | last = Odden | first = David | author-link = David Odden | year = 2020 | chapter = Tone | editor1 = Rainer Vossen | editor2 = Gerrit J. Dimmendaal | title = The Oxford Handbook of African Languages | location = Oxford | publisher = Oxford University Press | pages = 30–47 | isbn = 9780199609895 | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wcjXDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA30 }}
* {{cite book | last = Pike | first = Kenneth L. | author-link = Kenneth Lee Pike | year = 1948 | title = Tone Languages: A Technique for Determining the Number and Type of Pitch Contrasts In a Language, with Studies in Tonemic Substitution and Fusion | location = Ann Arbor | publisher = The University of Michigan Press}} (Reprinted 1972, {{ISBN|0-472-08734-7}}).
* {{Cite journal | doi = 10.1111/j.1467-971X.2008.00580.x | last1 = Wee | first1 = Lian-Hee | year = 2008 | title = Phonological Patterns in the Englishes of Singapore and Hong Kong | url = https://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/eng_ja/1 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210619072949/https://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/eng_ja/1/ | url-status = dead | archive-date = 19 June 2021 | journal = World Englishes | volume = 27 | issue = 3/4 | pages = 480–501 | url-access = subscription }}
* {{cite book | last = Yip | first = Moira | year = 2002 | title = Tone | series = Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics | location = Cambridge | publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]] | isbn = 978-0-521-77314-0 }} {{ISBN|0-521-77445-4}} (pbk).
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Tones (linguistics)}}
* [http://wals.info/feature/13?tg_format=map World map of tone languages] The World Atlas of Language Structures Online
* [https://thot.huma-num.fr/ Theory of Tone project]
** [https://thot.huma-num.fr/db/ ThoT Database] of tonal languages developed as part of the project

{{Suprasegmentals}}

{{Nonverbal communication}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tone (Linguistics)}}
[[Category:Tone (linguistics)| ]]
[[Category:Tonal languages| ]]
[[Category:Linguistics terminology]]