Tone name explained
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, rising, departing, and entering, each split into yin and yang 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.[1] 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 | pronounced as //nāː// | pronounced as /[näː˧]/ | paddy field |
| low | เอก | หน่า | pronounced as //nàː// | pronounced as /[näː˩]/ or pronounced as /[näː˨˩]/ | (a nickname) |
| falling | โท | หน้า | pronounced as //nâː// | pronounced as /[näː˦˩]/ | face, front |
| high | ตรี | น้า | pronounced as //náː// | pronounced as /[näː˦˥]/ or pronounced as /[näː˥]/ | maternal aunt or uncle younger than one's mother |
| rising | จัตวา | หนา | pronounced as //nǎː// | pronounced as /[näː˨˩˦]/ or pronounced as /[näː˨˦]/ | thick | |
See also
Notes and References
- Frankfurter, Oscar. Elements of Siamese grammar with appendices. American Presbyterian mission press, 1900 https://books.google.com/books?id=h6U6AAAAMAAJ (Full text available on Google Books)
