Everything about Tone Number totally explained
A
tone number is a numeral used in a notational system for marking the
tones of a language. The number is usually placed after the
romanized syllable. Notice that a number may have very different meanings in different contexts since the systems may have developed independently.
Chinese language study
In the Chinese tradition, numbers are assigned to various tones. For example,
Standard Mandarin has four tones and the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 are assigned to them. Although those tones have
names, which are more meaningful in the comparative study among
geographical and
chronological language varieties, most people refer to tones by number: "the first tone", "the second tone", and so on.
Tone numbers are also assigned for other spoken Chinese varieties according to various traditions, which may be unrelated to each other. The numbers are also unrelated to the relative pitch or the tones. That can be illustrated by comparing the tone charts of
Standard Mandarin,
Standard Cantonese and
Taiwanese.
| Standard Mandarin |
| Tone number |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
|
| Tone name |
yin
ping |
yang
ping |
shang |
qu |
| Tone letter |
˥˥ |
˧˥ |
˩, ˨˩˦ |
˥˩ |
| Standard Cantonese |
| Tone number |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
| Tone name |
yin
ping |
yin
shang |
yin
qu |
yang
ping |
yang
shang |
yang
qu |
shang
yin
ru |
xia
yin
ru |
yang
ru |
| Tone contour |
˥˥, ˥˧ |
˧˥ |
˧˧ |
˨˩, ˩˩ |
˩˧ |
˨˨ |
˥ |
˧ |
˨ |
| Taiwanese |
| Tone number |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
|
| Tone name |
yin
ping |
shang |
yin
qu |
yin
ru |
yang
ping |
not
used |
yang
qu |
yang
ru |
| Tone contour |
˦˦ |
˥˩ |
˧˩ |
˧ |
˨˦ |
˧˧ |
˥ |
Note:
Tone sandhi rules and the unstressed syllable of Standard Mandarin are not listed here for simplicity.
Although tone numbers are quite useless in comparative studies, they're useful within the context of a specified dialect, since they're easy references. For example, we may see these descriptions:
- In Standard Mandarin, the numeral 1, originally in tone 1, is pronounced in tone 4 if followed by a classifier in tone 1, 2, or 3. It is pronounced in tone 2 if the classifier is in tone 4.
- The Standard Cantonese tones 7, 8, and 9 have the same tone contour as tones 1, 3, and 6 respectively.
- In Taiwanese tone sandhi, tone 1 is pronounced as tone 7 if followed by other syllables in multisyllabic words.
Some
romanization schemes, like
Jyutping, use tone numbers. Even for
Pinyin, tone numbers are used instead when
diacritics are not available, as in basic
ASCII text.
Other languages
Tone numbers are also used in the study of other tonal languages. Sometimes, 1 may mean high pitch and 5 may mean low pitch. We have to refer to the individual traditions to get the correct meanings.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Tone Number'.
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