In tonal languages, tone names are the names given to the tones these languages use.
In contemporary standard Chinese (Mandarin), the tones are numbered from 1 to 4. They are descended from but not identical to the historical four tones of Middle Chinese, namely level (Chinese :平; pinyin :píng), rising (上; shǎng), departing (去; qù), and entering (入; rù), each split into yin (陰; yīn) and yang (陽; yáng) registers, and the categories of high and low syllables.
Standard Vietnamese has six tones, known as ngang, sắc, huyền, hỏi, ngã, and nặng tones.
Thai has five phonemic tones: mid, low, falling, high and rising, sometimes referred to in older reference works as rectus, gravis, circumflexus, altus and demissus, respectively. [2] The table shows an example of both the phonemic tones and their phonetic realization, in the IPA.
Tone | Thai | Example | Phonemic | Phonetic | Example meaning in English |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
mid | สามัญ | นา | /nāː/ | [näː˧] | paddy field |
low | เอก | หน่า | /nàː/ | [näː˩] or [näː˨˩] | (a nickname) |
falling | โท | หน้า | /nâː/ | [näː˦˩] | face, front |
high | ตรี | น้า | /náː/ | [näː˦˥] or [näː˥] | maternal aunt or uncle younger than one's mother |
rising | จัตวา | หนา | /nǎː/ | [näː˨˩˦] or [näː˨˦] | thick |