Tone contour: Difference between revisions
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Rising tone contours include /13/, /35/, /15/, etc. |
Rising tone contours include /13/, /35/, /15/, etc. |
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tones only one digit. For example, a high-pitched short utterance would have a tone contour of /5/, whereas a long, level high tone would be /55/. These "abrupt tones" typically have either an unvoiced consonant or a glottal stop at the end which abruptly cuts off the vowel sound. |
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Revision as of 19:39, 8 February 2006
![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Pinyin_Tone_Chart.png/150px-Pinyin_Tone_Chart.png)
Tone contours are numbers that represent the way pitch varies over a syllable. Their invention is attributed Yuen Ren Chao. If you visualise a stave of music, there are five horizontal lines. Each representing a different pitch level. The pitch levels are numbered from 1 to 5, the lowest being 1 and the highest being 5.
The Standard Mandarin third tone has a tone contour /214/, showing a pitch that dips and then rises.
Examples of level tone contours are /11/, /22/, /33/, /44/ and /55/.
Falling tone contours include /51/, /31/, /53/, etc.
Rising tone contours include /13/, /35/, /15/, etc.
Some people write short tones with only one digit to emphasis the shortness. For example, a high-pitched short utterance would have a tone contour of /5/, whereas a long, level high tone would be /55/. These "abrupt tones" typically have either an unvoiced consonant or a glottal stop at the end which abruptly cuts off the vowel sound. However, other people prefer keeping the digit doubled to avoid confusion with the tone numbers.