View source for Tone (linguistics)

{{LangPsy}}
{{distinguish|intonation (linguistics)}}
'''Tone''' is the use of [[pitch (music)|pitch]] in [[language]] to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or [[inflection|inflect]] words. All languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic 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. Such tonal [[phoneme]]s are sometimes called '''tonemes'''.

A slight majority of the languages in the world are tonal. However, most [[Indo-European language]]s, which include the most widely spoken languages in the world today, are not tonal.

In the most familiar tonal language, [[Chinese language|Chinese]], tones are distinguished by their shape (contour), most syllables carry their own tone, and many words are differentiated solely by tone. Furthermore, tone tends to play almost no grammatical role (the [[Jin Chinese|Jin language]] of [[Shanxi]] being a notable exception). In many tonal African languages, such as most [[Bantu languages]], however, tones are distinguished by their relative level, words are longer, there are fewer [[minimal pair|minimal tone pairs]], and 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.

Many languages use tone in a more limited way. [[Somali phonology|Somali]], for example, may only have one high tone per word. In [[Japanese pitch accent|Japanese]], less than half of the words have [[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, the term "pitch accent" does not have a coherent definition.

==Tonal languages==
Languages that are tonal include:
*Some of the [[Sino-Tibetan languages]], including the numerically most important ones. Most forms of Chinese are strongly tonal (an exception being [[Shanghainese]], where the system has collapsed to only a two-way contrast at the word level with some initial consonants, and no contrast at all with others); while some of the [[Tibetan language]]s, including the standard languages of [[Lhasa]] and [[Bhutan]] and [[Burmese language|Burmese]] are more marginally tonal. However, [[Nepal Bhasa (language)|Nepal Bhasa]], the original language of [[Kathmandu]], is non-tonal, as are several Tibetan dialects and many other Tibeto-Burman languages.
*In the [[Austroasiatic languages|Austro-Asiatic]] family, [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]] and its closest relatives are strongly tonal. Other languages of this family, such as [[Mon language|Mon]], [[Khmer language|Khmer]], and the [[Munda languages]], are non-tonal.
*The entire [[Kradai]] family, spoken mainly in China, Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos, is strongly tonal.
*The entire [[Hmong-Mien languages]] family is strongly tonal.
*Many [[Afro-Asiatic languages]] in the Chadic, Cushitic and Omotic families have register-tone systems, such as Chadic [[Hausa language|Hausa]]. Many of the Omotic tone systems are quite complex. However, many other languages in these families, such as the Cushitic language [[Somali language|Somali]], have minimal tone. 
*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 the [[Zulu language|Zulu]], have register-tone systems. The [[Kru languages]] have contour tones. Notable non-tonal Niger-Congo languages are [[Swahili language|Swahili]], [[Fula language|Fula]], and [[Wolof language|Wolof]].
*Possibly all [[Nilo-Saharan languages]] have register-tone systems.
*All [[Khoisan languages]] in southern Africa have contour-tone systems.
*Slightly more than half of the [[Athabaskan languages]], such as [[Navajo language|Navajo]], have simple register-tone systems (languages in California, Oregon and a few in Alaska excluded), but the languages that have tone fall into two groups that are mirror images of each other. 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.''
*All [[Oto-Manguean languages]] are tonal. Most have register-tone systems, some contour systems. These are perhaps the most complex tone systems in America.
*The [[Kiowa-Tanoan languages]].
*Scattered languages of the [[Amazon basin]], usually with rather simple register-tone systems.
*Scattered languages of [[New Guinea]], usually with rather simple register-tone systems.
*A few Indo-European languages, namely [[Panjabi language|Panjabi]], [[Ancient Greek]], [[Sanskrit language#Pitch|Vedic Sanskrit]], [[Swedish language|Swedish]], [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]], [[Limburgish]], [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]], and West [[South Slavic languages]] ([[Slovene language|Slovene]], [[Croatian language|Croatian]] and [[Serbian language|Serbian]]) have limited word-tone systems which are sometimes called pitch accent or "tonal accents". Generally there can only be at most one tonic syllable per word of 2-5 different registers, as well as additional distinctive and non-distinctive pre- and post-tonic lengths.
*Some European-based [[creole language]]s, such as [[Saramaccan]] and [[Papiamentu]], have tone from their African [[substratum]] languages.

The vast majority of [[Austronesian languages]] are non-tonal, but a small number have developed tone. No tonal language has been reported from [[Australia]]. With other languages we simply don't know. For example, the [[Ket language]] 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.

A famous example of tone in Ancient Greek comes from [[Aristophanes]]' ''[[The Frogs|Frogs]],'' where (l. 304) Aristophanes mentions an instance at a performance of [[Euripides]]' play ''[[Orestes (play)|Orestes]],'' where an actor pronounced ''{{Unicode|galḗn' horō}}'' "I see calm waters" with so much empathy that it came out ''{{Unicode|galên horō}}'' "I see a weasel".

==Tone as a distinguishing feature==
{{Copyedit|date=March 2008}}
Most languages use pitch as [[intonation]] to convey [[prosody]] and [[pragmatics]], but this does not make them tone languages. In tone languages, tone is phonemic, and thus [[minimal pair]]s distinguished by tone exist in such languages.

Here is a minimal tone set from Mandarin Chinese, which has five tones, here transcribed by diacritics over the vowels:

# A high level tone: /á/ (pinyin <ā>)
# A tone starting with mid pitch and rising to a high pitch: /ǎ/ (pinyin <á>)
# A low tone which dips briefly before, if there is no following syllable, rising a high pitch: /à/ (pinyin <ǎ>)
# A sharply falling tone, starting high and falling to the bottom of the speaker's vocal range: /â/ (pinyin <à>)
# A neutral tone, sometimes indicated by a dot (·) in Pinyin, has no specific contour; its pitch depends on the tones of the preceding and following syllables. Mandarin speakers refer to this tone as the "light tone" (輕聲).

These tones combine with a syllable such as "ma" to produce different words. A minimal set based on "ma" are, in pinyin transcription,
#''māma'' "mother"
#''má'' "hemp"
#''mǎ'' "horse"
#''mà'' "scold"
#''ma'' (an interrogative particle)

These may be combined into the rather contrived sentence,

:妈妈骂马的麻吗? (in [[traditional Chinese characters|traditional characters]] 媽媽罵馬的麻嗎?)
:Pinyin: ''māma mà mǎ de má ma?''
:English:"Is Mother scolding the horse's hemp?"

A well-known [[tongue-twister]] in the Thai language is:

:ไหมใหม่ไหม้ไม๊
:IPA: /mǎi mài mâi mái/
:"Does new silk burn?"<ref>Tones change over time, but may retain their original spelling. The Thai spelling of the final word in the tongue-twister, <ไหม>, indicates a rising tone, but the word is now commonly pronounced with a high tone. Therefore a new spelling, มั้ย, is occasionally seen.</ref>

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

==Register tones and contour tones==<!-- This section is linked from [[Register]] -->
Tone systems fall into two broad patterns: '''Register tone''' systems and '''contour tone''' systems.

Most Chinese languages use contour tone systems, 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, on the other hand, have register tone systems, where the distinguishing feature is the relative difference between the pitches, such as high, mid, or low, rather than their shapes. In many register tone 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 register and contour tones, such as many [[Kru languages]], where nouns are distinguished by contour tones and verbs by register. Others, such as [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]], have phonetic contours, but these can easily be analysed as sequences of register tones, with for example sequences of high–low {{IPA|/áà/}} becoming falling {{IPA|[âː]}}, and sequences of low–high {{IPA|/àá/}} becoming rising {{IPA|[ǎː]}}.

===Register languages===
The term "register", when not used in the phrase "register tone", commonly indicates vowel [[phonation]] combined with tone in a single phonological system. [[Burmese language|Burmese]], for example, is a [[register language]], where differences in pitch are so intertwined with vowel phonation that neither can be considered without the other.

==Tone terracing and tone sandhi==
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, 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.

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, 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 {{IPA|[xɤn˨˩˦]}} 'very' and {{IPA|[xaʊ˨˩˦]}} 'good' produce the phrase {{IPA|[xɤn˧˥ xaʊ˨˩˦]}} 'very good'.

==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 to some extent the [[Kru languages]], each syllable may have any tone, whereas in [[Shanghainese]], the [[Scandinavian languages]], 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 tones no matter how many syllables are in a word. 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 suffixes and grammatical particles have what is called (when describing Mandarin) 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
! Tone in isolation
! Tone pattern with<br>added 'neutral tone'
! Example
! Pinyin
! English meaning
|-
| high {{IPA|˥}}
| {{IPA|˥.˨}}
| 玻璃
| bōli
| glass
|-
| rising {{IPA|˧˥}}
| {{IPA|˧˥.˧}}
| 伯伯
| bóbo
| uncle
|-
| dipping {{IPA|˨˩˦}}
| {{IPA|˨˩.˦}}
| 喇叭
| lǎba
| horn
|-
| falling {{IPA|˥˩}}
| {{IPA|˥˩.˩}}
| 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{{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.

==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, while marked syllables have high tone. In the related language [[Sekani language|Sekani]], however, the default is high tone, and marked syllables have low tone.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://people.umass.edu/jkingstn/web%20page/research/athabaskan%20tonogenesis%20camera%20ready%20final%2021%20october%2004.pdf|title=The Phonetics of Athabaskan Tonogenesis|last=Kingston|first=John|date=2004|work=Athabaskan Prosody|publisher=John Benjamins Press|pages=131-179|accessdate=2008-11-14}}</ref> There are parallels with stress: English stressed syllables have a higher pitch than unstressed syllables, whereas in Russian, stressed syllables have a lower pitch.

==Phonetic notation==
There are three main approaches to notating tones in phonetic descriptions of a language. 
#The easiest from a typological perspective is a numbering system, with the pitch levels assigned numerals, and each tone transcribed as a numeral or sequence of numerals. Such systems tend to be idiosyncratic, for example with high tone being assigned the numeral 1, 3, or 5, and so have not been adopted for the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]].
#Also simple for simple tone systems is a series of diacritics, such as <ó> for high tone and <ò> for low tone. This has been adopted by the IPA, but is not easy to adapt to complex contour tone systems (see under Chinese below for one work-around). The five IPA diacritics for level tones are <{{IPA|ő ó ō ò ȍ}}>. These may be combined to form contour tones, <{{IPA|ô ǒ o᷄ o᷅ o᷆ o᷇ o᷈ o᷉}}>, though font support is sparse. Sometimes a non-IPA vertical diacritic for a second, higher, mid tone is seen, <{{IPA|o̍}}>, so that in a language with four level tones, they may be transcribed {{IPA|ó o̍ ō ò}}.
#The most flexible system is that of [[tone letter]]s, which are iconic schematics of the pitch trace of the tone in question. The are most commonly used for complex contour systems, as in Liberia and Southern China. 

===Africa===
In African linguistics (as well as in many African orthographies), usually a set of accent marks is used to mark tone. The most common phonetic set (which is also included in the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]]) is found below:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|High tone
|acute
|á
|-
|Mid tone
|macron
|ā
|-
|Low tone
|grave
|à
|}

Several variations are found. In many three tone languages, it is common to mark High and Low tone as indicated above, but to omit marking of the Mid tone, e.g., ''má'' (High), ''ma'' (Mid), ''mà'' (Low). Similarly, in some two tone languages, only one tone is marked explicitly.

With more complex tonal systems, such as in the [[Kru languages|Kru]] and [[Omotic languages]], it is usual to indicate tone with numbers, with 1 for HIGH and 4 or 5 for LOW in Kru, but 1 for LOW and 5 for HIGH in Omotic. Contour tones are then indicated 14, 21, etc.

=== Asia ===
In the Chinese tradition, numerals are assigned to various tones. For instance, [[Standard Mandarin]] has five tones, and the numerals 1, 2, 3, and 4 are assigned to four tones, and the neutral tone is left numberless. Chinese dialects are traditionally described in terms of eight tones (six tones, from the perspective of modern linguistics), though many dialects do not have all of them. Outside standard Mandarin, the numerals 1 to 8 are assigned to these tones based on their historical origin. In neither of these systems does the numeral have anything to do with the pitch values of the tones. Tone 5, for example, has drastically different realizations in different dialects.

More iconic systems are to use tone numbers, or an equivalent set of graphic pictograms known as '[[Y. R. Chao|Chao]] tone letters'. 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 tones are transcribed as follows (note that the tone letters will not display properly unless you have a [[International Phonetic Alphabet#Free IPA font downloads|compatible font]] installed):

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin:1em auto 1em auto"
|+Tones of Standard Mandarin
|High tone
|55
| {{IPA|˥˥}}
|(Tone 1)
|-
|Mid rising tone
|35
| {{IPA|˧˥}}
|(Tone 2)
|-
|Low dipping tone
|214
| {{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.

Standard IPA 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 languages have more than one rising or falling tone. One common work-around is to retain standard IPA {{IPA|/ɔ̌/}} and {{IPA|/ɔ̂/}} for high-rising (/35/) and high-falling (/53/) tones, and to use the subscript diacritics {{IPA|/ɔ̗/}} and {{IPA|/ɔ̖/}} for low-rising (/13/) and low-falling (/31/) tones.

The [[Thai language]] has five tones: high, mid, low, rising and falling. It uses an alphabetic writing system which specifies the tone unambiguously. Tone is indicated by an interaction of the initial consonant of a syllable, the vowel, the final consonant (if present), and sometimes a tone mark. A particular tone mark may denote different tones depending on the initial consonant.

[[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]] uses the Latin alphabet, and the 6 tones are marked by [[diacritic]]s above or below a certain vowel of each syllable. In many words that end in [[diphthong]]s, however, exactly which vowel is marked is still debatable. Notation for Vietnamese tones are as follows:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; margin:1em auto 1em auto"
|+ Tones of northern 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 (diacritic)|hook]]
|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. This system enables Hmong speakers to type their language with an ordinary Latin-letter typewriter 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 [[Japanese language]] does not have tone, but does have [[downstep (phonetics)|downstep]], so that 雨 ''áme'' (rain), with a drop in pitch after the first syllable, is distinguished from あめ ''ame'' (candy), which has no drop.

===The Americas===
Several North American languages have tone, one of which is Oklahoma Cherokee, said to be the most musical of the Iroquoian languages. Cherokee has six tones (1 low, 2 medium, 3 high, 4 very high, 23 rising and 32 falling).

In Mesoamericanist linguistics, /1/ stands for High tone and /5/ stands for Low tone, except in [[Oto-Manguean]] languages, where /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 ‹j› or ‹h› after a vowel to indicate low tone. 

[[Southern Athabascan languages]] that include the [[Navajo language|Navajo]] and [[Apache languages]] are tonal, and are analyzed as having 2 tones, high and low. One variety of [[Hopi language|Hopi]] has developed tone, as has the [[Cheyenne language]].

The Mesoamerican language stock called [[Oto-Manguean]] is notoriously tonal and is the largest language family in [[Mesoamerica]], containing languages including [[Zapotec language|Zapotec]], [[Mixtecan languages|Mixtec]], and [[Otomi language|Otomí]], some of which have as many as 8 different tones (Chinantec,) and others only two ([[Matlatzinca language|Matlatzinca]] and [[Chichimeca Jonaz language|Chichimeca Jonaz]]). Other languages in Mesoamerica that have tones are [[Huichol language|Huichol]], [[Yukatek Maya language|Yukatek Maya]], [[Tzotzil language|Tzotzil Maya of San Bartolo]] and [[K'iche' language|Uspantec Maya (Quiché of Uspantán)]], and one variety of [[Huave]].

A number of languages of South America are tonal. For example, the [[Pirahã language]] has three tones. The [[Ticuna language]] isolate is exceptional for having five level tones (the only other languages to have such a system are the [[Trique language]] and the Usila dialect of [[Chinantec]] (both Oto-Manguean languages of Mexico).

{{Expand-section|date=June 2008}}

===Europe===
Both Swedish and Norwegian have simple word tone systems, often called [[pitch accent]], that only appears in words of two or more syllables. This differentiates some two-syllable words depending on their [[morphology (linguistics)|morphological]] structure. The two word tones are usually called ''accent 1'' and ''accent 2'' (or [[acute accent]] and [[grave accent]]), respectively. Limburgish is similar. For further explanation and examples, see the [[Swedish language#Prosody|Swedish]], [[Norwegian language#Accent|Norwegian]], and [[Limburgish]] language articles.

==Practical orthographies==
In practical alphabetic orthographies, a number of approaches are used. Diacritics are common, as in [[pinyin]], though these 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. Or tone may simply be ignored. This is possible even for highly tonal languages: for example, the Chinese navy has successfully used toneless pinyin in government telegraph communications for decades, and likewise Chinese reporters abroad may file their stories in toneless pinyin. [[Dungan language|Dungan]], a variety of Mandarin spoken in Central Asia, has had a written literature since 1927 in orthographies that do not indicate tone since.<ref name=Dungan>[http://www.pinyin.info/readings/texts/dungan.html ''Implications of the Soviet Dungan Script for Chinese Language Reform'']</ref> [[Ndjuka]], where 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.

== Number of tones ==
Languages may distinguish up to five levels of pitch, though the [[Chori language]] of Nigeria is described as distinguishing six surface tones. Since tone contours may involve up to two shifts in pitch, there are theoretically 5*5*5 = 125 distinct tones. However, the most that are used in a single language is a tenth of that number.

If we include contour tones as separate tones, several [[Kam-Sui languages]] of southern China have nine tones, assuming that [[checked syllable]]s are not counted as having additional tones, as they traditionally are in China. 

Preliminary work on the [[Wobe language]] of Liberia and Ivory Coast and the [[Chatino language]]s of southern Mexico suggests that some dialects may distinguish as many as fourteen tones, but many linguists have expressed doubts, believing that many of these will turn out to be sequences of tones or prosodic effects.

==Tonal Consonants==

Tone is often carried by the syllable, so syllabic consonants such as nasals and trills may bear tone. This is especially common with syllabic nasals, for example in many [[Bantu languages|Bantu]] and [[Kru languages]].

==Origin of tone==
{{Sound change}}
The origin of tones in East and Southeast Asia has been discovered by the linguist A.-G. Haudricourt: tones in languages such as Vietnamese or Chinese originate in earlier consonantal contrasts (the seminal references are two articles by Haudricourt, published in 1954 and 1961). It is by now well-established that Old Chinese did not have tone. On the other hand, the origin of tones in the Subsaharan domain remains unknown to this day: the reconstructed parent languages of present-day tonal Bantu languages are presumed to be tonal. 

The historical origin of tone is called ''tonogenesis'' (a term coined by the linguist James A. Matisoff). Tone is frequently an [[areal feature (linguistics)|areal]] rather than a genealogical feature: That is, a language may acquire tones through bilingualism if influential neighboring languages are tonal, or if speakers of a tonal language shift to the language in question, and bring their tones with them. In other cases, tone may arise spontaneously, and surprisingly quickly: The dialect of [[Cherokee language|Cherokee]] in Oklahoma has tone, but the dialect in North Carolina does not, although they were only separated in 1838.

Very often, tone arises as an effect of the loss or [[phonemic merger|merger]] of consonants. (Such trace effects of disappeared sounds, which is not restricted to tone, have been nicknamed [[Cheshirisation]], after the lingering smile of the disappearing Cheshire cat in ''[[Alice in Wonderland]].'') In a non-tonal language, [[voiced consonant]]s commonly cause following vowels to be pronounced at a lower pitch than other consonants do. This 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 had carried, and thus becomes meaningful (phonemic). We can see this historically in [[Punjabi language|Panjabi]]: the Panjabi [[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 high tone; if at the end, a high tone. If there was no such consonant, the pitch was unaffected; however, the unaffected words are limited in pitch so as not to interfere with the low and high tones, and so has become a tone of its own: mid tone. The historical connection is so regular that Panjabi is still written as if it had murmured consonants, and tone is not marked: The written consonants tell the reader which tone to use.

Similarly, final [[fricative]]s or other consonants may phonetically affect the pitch of preceding vowels, and if they then [[lenition|weaken]] to /h/ and finally disappear completely, the difference in pitch, now a true difference in tone, carries on in their stead. This was the case with the Chinese languages: Two of the three tones of [[Middle Chinese]], the "rising" and "leaving" 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 dialects descending from Middle Chinese were further affected by a tone [[Phonemic differentiation#Phonemic splits|split]], where each tone split in two depending on whether the initial consonant was voiced: Vowels following an unvoiced consonant acquired a higher tone while those following a voiced consonant acquired a lower tone as the voiced consonants lost their distinctiveness.

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]], [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]], and the [[Lhasa]] dialect of [[Tibetan language|Tibetan]].

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), whereas 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.

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, 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 for "water" ''*{{IPA|tuː}}'' 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|-góʼ}}'' in Slavey. Kingston (2005) provides a phonetic explanation for the opposite development of tone based on the two different ways of producing glottalized consonants with either (a) [[tense voice]] on the preceding vowel, which tends to produce a high F0, or (b) [[creaky voice]], which tends to produce a low F0. 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, where 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 each other 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.

==See also==

* [[Pitch accent]]
* [[Tone terracing]]
* [[Downdrift]]
* [[Downstep (phonetics)|Downstep]]
* [[Floating tone]]
* [[Tone contour]]
* [[Meeussen's rule]]
* [[Tone name]]
* [[Tonal language]]
* [[Musical language]]
* [[Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den]]

==Bibliography==

* Bao, Zhiming. (1999). ''The structure of tone''. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511880-4.
*Chen, Matthew Y. 2000. ''Tone Sandhi: patterns across Chinese dialects''. Cambridge, England: CUP ISBN 0-521-65272-3
*[[George N. Clements|Clements, George N.]]; [[John Goldsmith|Goldsmith, John]] (eds.) (1984) ''Autosegmental Studies in Bantu Tone''.  Berlin: Mouton de Gruyer.
* [[Victoria Fromkin|Fromkin, Victoria A.]] (ed.). (1978). ''Tone: A linguistic survey''. New York: Academic Press.
* [[Halle, Morris]]; & [[Kenneth N. Stevens|Stevens, Kenneth]]. (1971). A note on laryngeal features. ''Quarterly progress report 101''. MIT.
* [[André-Georges Haudricourt|Haudricourt, André-Georges]]. (1954). ''De l'origine des tons en vietnamien''. Journal Asiatique, 242: 69-82.
* [[André-Georges Haudricourt|Haudricourt, André-Georges]]. (1961). ''Bipartition et tripartition des systèmes de tons dans quelques langues d'Extrême-Orient.'' Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris, 56: 163-180.
* Hombert, Jean-Marie; [[John Ohala|Ohala, John J.]]; & Ewan, William G. (1979). Phonetic explanations for the development of tones. ''Language'', ''55'', 37-58.
* [[Larry M. Hyman|Hyman, Larry]]. 2007. There is no pitch-accent prototype. Paper presented at the 2007 LSA Meeting. Anaheim, CA. 
* [[Larry M. Hyman|Hyman, Larry]]. 2007. How (not) to do phonological typology: the case of pitch-accent. Berkeley, UC Berkeley. UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report: 654-685. [http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/phonlab/annual_report/documents/2007/Hyman_Pitch-Accent.pdf Available online.]
* Kingston, John. (2005). The phonetics of Athabaskan tonogenesis. In S. Hargus & K. Rice (Eds.), ''Athabaskan prosody'' (pp. 137-184). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.
* [[Ian Maddieson|Maddieson, Ian]]. (1978). Universals of tone. In J. H. Greenberg (Ed.), ''Universals of human language: Phonology'' (Vol. 2). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
* Michaud, Alexis. (2008). Tones and intonation: some current challenges. Proc. of 8th Int. Seminar on Speech Production (ISSP'08), Strasbourg, pp. 13-18. (Keynote lecture.) [http://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00325982/ Available online.]
* [[Odden, David]]. (1995). Tone: African languages. In J. Goldsmith (Ed.), ''Handbook of phonological theory''. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
* [[Pike, Kenneth L.]] (1948). ''Tone languages: A technique for determining the number and type of pitch contrasts in a language, with studies in tonemic substitution and fusion''. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. (Reprinted 1972, ISBN 0-472-08734-7).
* Yip, Moira. (2002). ''Tone''. Cambridge textbooks in linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-77314-8 (hbk), ISBN 0-521-77445-4 (pbk).

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Suprasegmentals}}

[[Category:Phonology]]
[[Category:Speech pitch]]
[[Category:Tonal languages| ]]

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[[he:טון (בלשנות)]]
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