Language and Humor

Chinese Tones

Every syllable of every word in languages like Mandarin Chinese and Thai have pitch patterns that are part of the correct pronunciation and that contrast with other words that have the same consonant and vowel sounds but different tones.

Mandarin | Cantonese

Mandarin / 普通話·普通话 Pu3tong1hua4

Tones are called 聲調·声调 sheng1diao4 in Mandarin, or "four tones" 四聲·四声 si4sheng1.

Numbers for Mandarin tone contours (e.g., "55" for high level) are from the work of linguist 趙元任·赵元任 Yuen Ren CHAO (1892–1982).

[IMAGE: Mandarin tone chart]

Mandarin Tones
(*Hanyu Pinyin* romanization system)
Tone Number	Diacritic	Tone Name	Tone Contour		Contour Numbers
1	macron	high level 陰平・阴平 yin1ping2	starts at very high pitch (5), stays flat (5), long duration		55
2	acute	high rising 陽平・阳平 yang2ping2	starts at medium pitch (3), rises to very high pitch (5)		35
3	caron	falling rising 上聲・上声 shang3sheng1	before a pause or the end of a sentence	full: starts at low pitch (2), falls to very low pitch (1), and rises to high pitch (4), long duration	214
			before a 1st-, 2nd-, 4th-, or 5th-tone syllable	abbreviated: starts at low pitch (2), falls to very low pitch (1), and stops	21
			before a 3rd-tone syllable	shifts to 2nd tone (high rising): starts at medium pitch (3), rises to very high pitch (5)	35
4	grave	high falling 去聲・去声 qu4sheng1	starts at very high pitch (5), falls quickly to very low pitch (1)		51
5 or 0	none	neutral 輕聲・轻声 qing1sheng1	varies depending on preceding syllable [used with many grammatical words and with endings of many compound words]		varies

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Cantonese / 粵語 Jyut6jyu5 (Mandarin: Yue4yu3)

Tones are called 聲調 sing1diu6 in Cantonese.

Numbers for Cantonese tone contours (e.g., "55" for high level) are from the work of linguist 趙元任·赵元任 Yuen Ren CHAO (1892–1982).

[IMAGE: Cantonese tone chart]

Cantonese Tones
(Jyutping romanization system)
Tone Number		Environment	Tone Name	Tone Contour	Contour Numbers
Jyutping	Yale¹	Environment	Tone Name	Tone Contour	Contour Numbers
1	1	when ending in a vowel or nasal (-m, -n, -ng)	high level² 陰平 jam1ping4 [yin1ping2]³	starts at very high pitch (5), stays flat (5)	55²
1	7	when ending in a stop consonant (-p, -t, -k)	entering high level 陰入 jam1jap6 [yin1ru4]	starts at very high pitch (5), flat, and ends abruptly with unreleased stop consonant	5
2	2	only ends in a vowel or nasal (-m, -n, -ng)	high rising 陰上 jam1soeng5 [yin1shang4]	starts at medium pitch (3), rises to very high pitch (5)	35 [25, 24]⁴
3	3	when ending in a vowel or nasal (-m, -n, -ng)	mid level 陰去 jam1heoi3 [yin1qu4]	starts at medium pitch (3), stays flat (3)	33 [44]
3	8	when ending in a stop consonant (-p, -t, -k)	entering mid level 中入 zung1jap6 [zhong1ru4]	starts at medium pitch (3), flat, and ends abruptly with unreleased stop consonant	3 [4]
4	4	only ends in a vowel or nasal (-m, -n, -ng)	low falling 陽平 joeng4ping4 [yang2ping2]	starts at low pitch (2), falls to very low pitch (1)	21 [11]
5	5	only ends in a vowel or nasal (-m, -n, -ng)	low rising 陽上 joeng4soeng5 [yang2shang4]	starts at low pitch (2), rises to medium pitch (3)	23 [13, 24]
6	6	when ending in a vowel or nasal (-m, -n, -ng)	low level 陽去 joeng4heoi3 [yang2qu4]	starts at low pitch (2), stays flat (2)	22 [33]
6	9	when ending in a stop consonant (-p, -t, -k)	entering low level 陽入 joeng4jap6 [yang2ru4]	starts at low pitch (2), flat, and ends abruptly with unreleased stop consonant	2 [3]
¹Yale = the Yale [University] romanization system for Cantonese. ²In some areas the 1st tone has two forms: high level (55) and high falling (53). In other areas high falling has merged into high level (55). ³Words in [square brackets] are the Mandarin pronunciations of the Cantonese tone names. ⁴Numbers in [square brackets] are other linguists' analyses, which may refer to different varieties of Cantonese.

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