Summary of Tone Typology
|
Total Number of Tones |
Total Number of Languages |
Number of Level Tones |
Number of Contour Tones |
Number of Complex Tones |
|
2 |
5 |
7 |
1 |
0 |
|
3 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
2 |
|
4 |
9 |
16 |
11 |
9 |
|
5 |
3 |
7 |
4 |
4 |
|
6 |
4 |
4 |
6 |
2 |
|
7 |
3 |
4 |
7 |
3 |
|
8 |
6 |
10 |
14 |
8 |
|
Totals |
34 |
51 |
47 |
28 |
The detailed version -- the left column indicates the language and source; the right the types of tones found
(at this point I am still including Thai and Hmong-Mien languages despite not being Sino-Tibetan languages; they are footnoted)
|
Two Tone Systems |
||
|
Primi (Ramsey 1987) |
|
|
|
Dulong (LaPolla 2003) |
level (usually pronounced mid or high level), falling (usually pronounced high falling) |
|
|
Padma-bKot Tshangla[1] (Andvik 2003) |
high, low |
|
|
Meithei[2] (Chelliah 2003) |
high, low |
|
|
Lhasa Tibetan[3] (DeLancey 2003) |
high, low |
|
|
Three Tone Systems |
|
|
Jingpo (Ramsey 1987) |
|
|
Hakha Lai (Peterson 2003) |
falling, level, rising |
| Lotha (Acharya 1983) | rising, falling, level |
|
Lahu (Peiros 1998) |
low ‘checked’, falling ‘checked’, high |
|
Four Tone Systems |
|
|
Mandarin Chinese |
high level, falling, rising, fall-rise |
|
Naxi (Moso) (Ramsey 1987) |
high level, mid level, low level, low rising |
|
Standard Burmese (Wheatley 1987) |
creaky, low, high, checked |
|
Niuwozi Prinmi (Ding 2003) |
rising, falling, high level, low level |
|
Nar-Phu (Noonan 2003) |
high falling, mid-high level, low level murmured, low falling murmured |
|
Pwo Karen Hpa-an Dialect (Kato 2003) |
high level, mid level with breathy voice[4], low level, falling with slightly creaky voice |
|
Eastern Kayah Li (Solnit 2003) |
mid, low level plus final glottal stop, low falling plus final creak and glottal stop, high plus glottal stop |
|
Jingpho (Qingxia and Diehl 2003) |
|
|
Tamang (Mazaudon 2003) |
high falling, mid-high level, mid-low level, very low[7] |
|
Five Tone Systems |
|
|
Shanghai Chinese (Ramsey 1987) |
high falling, low level, medium-high, high with glottal ending, low with glottal ending |
| Angami (Giridhar 1980) | high level, mid level, mid falling, low falling, low |
|
Bai (Edmondson and Li 1994 in Yip 2002:201) |
high level, high rising, mid level, mid falling creaky, mid falling breathy |
|
Six Tone Systems |
|
|
Meixian Hakka |
|
|
Southern Qiang[8] (Ramsey 1987) |
high level, low falling, high-low falling, low rising, mid level, rising-falling |
|
Amoy (Ramsey 1987) |
|
|
Nasu (Ramsey 1987) |
high level, high-mid rising, mid-level, mid-rising, low-falling rising, low-falling, checked[9] mid-falling |
|
Lisu (Bradley 2003) |
high level, rising, higher-mid creaky, mid non-creaky, low falling, low falling with glottal stop |
|
Seven Tone Systems |
|
|
Other Wu dialects[10] (Ramsey 1987) |
|
|
Black Lahu (Matisoff 2003) |
mid, high rising, high falling, low falling, very low, high checked, low checked |
|
Eight Tone Systems |
|
|
Standard Zhuang[11] (Ramsey 1987) |
low-rising, low-falling, high-level, high-falling, mid-rising, mid-level, high ‘checked’[12], mid-checked |
|
Sui[13] (Ramsey 1987) |
|
|
Maonan[14] (Ramsey 1987) |
|
|
Miao[15] (Ramsey 1987) |
high falling, mid falling, high level, low falling, high-mid level, low rising, mid level, mid rising |
|
Jianchuan Bai (Wiersma 2003) |
high level tense voice, non-high level tense voice, low falling breathy voice, non-high falling tense voice, low falling harsh voice, high level, non-high level, high rising |
|
Dali Bai[16] (Ramsey 1987) |
high-mid level, mid level, low-mid level, low falling, high falling, low rising, low falling-rising, high level ‘checked’ |
|
Nine Tone Systems |
||
|
Cantonese (Ramsey 1987) |
high falling, low falling, high rising, low rising, mid level, low level, high level short, mid-level long |
|
|
More than Nine Tone Systems |
|
|
Kam[17] (at most 15 tones) (Ramsey 1987) |
|
|
Cantonese (10) (Yip 2002) |
high level, mid-high level, mid level, low/low falling, mid rising, low rising, high falling[18], (high short, high-mid short, mid short)[19] |
References
Acharya, K.P. 1983. “Lotha Grammar.” CIIL Grammar Series 10. Mysore, India: Central Institute of Indian Languages.
Andvik, Erik. 2003. “Tshangla.” In Thurgood and LaPolla (eds.) The Sino-Tibetan Languages. New York: Routledge. 439-455.
Bradley, David. 2003. “Lisu.” In Thurgood and LaPolla (eds.) The Sino-Tibetan Languages. New York: Routeladge. 222-35.
Chelliah. Shobhana L. 2003. “Meithei.” In Thurgood and LaPolla (eds.) The Sino-Tibetan Languages. New York: Routledge. 427-438.
DeLancey, Scott. 2003. “Lhasa Tibetan.” In Thurgood and LaPolla (eds.) The Sino-Tibetan Languages. New York: Routledge. 270-88
Ding, Picus Sizhi. 2003. “Prinmi: A Sketch of Niuwozi.” In Thurgood and LaPolla (eds.) The Sino-Tibetan Languages. New York: Routledge. 588-601.
Edmonson and Li.????
Giridhir, P.P. 1908. “Angami Grammar.” CIIL Grammar Series - 6. Mysore, India: Central Institute of Indian Languages.
Kato, Atsuhiko. 2003. “Pwo Karen.” In Thurgood and LaPolla (eds.) The Sino-Tibetan Languages. New York: Routeladge. 632-648.
LaPolla, Randy J. 2003. “Dulong.” In Thurgood and LaPolla (eds.) The Sino-Tibetan Languages. New York: Routeladge. 674-682.
Mazadoun. 2003.
Matisoff, James A. 2003. “Lahu.” In Thurgood and LaPolla (eds.) The Sino-Tibetan Languages. New York: Routeladge. 208-21.
Noonan, Michael. “Nar-Phu”. In Thurgood and LaPolla (eds.) The Sino-Tibetan Languages. New York: Routeladge. 336-352.
Peiros, Ilia. 1998. Comparative Linguistics in Southeast Asia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University.
Peterson, David A. 2003 “Hakha Lai.” In Thurgood and LaPolla (eds.) The Sino-Tibetan Languages. New York: Routeladge. 409-426.
Qingxia, Dai and Lon Diehl. 2003. “Jingpho.” In Thurgood and LaPolla (eds.) The Sino-Tibetan Languages. New York: Routeladge. 401-8.
Ramsey, S. Robert. 1987. The Languages of China. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Solnit, David. 2003. “Eastern Kayah Li.” In Thurgood and LaPolla (eds.) The Sino-Tibetan Languages. New York: Routeladge. 623-631.
Wheatley, Julian K. 1987. “Burmese.” In Comrie, B. (ed.) The World’s Major Languages. New York: Oxford University Press. 834-54.
Wiersma, Grace. 2003. “Yunnan Bai.” In Thurgood and LaPolla (eds.) The Sino-Tibetan Languages. New York: Routledge. 651-673.
Yip, Moira. 2002. Tone. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
[1] Andvik analyzes this dialect of Tshangla as being involved in tonogenesis. The high-low contrast is replacing a previous voicing distinction in initial consonants; a two-way pitch contrast is already seen in sonorant-initial syllables.
[2] The distinction is made on roots only; prefixes and suffixes are not associated with a tone.
[3] The distinction between high and low tone is made in only the first syllable of a word. Contour tones are also found in predictable environments.
[4] This tone is also sometimes accompanied by a rising contour.
[5] This tone is high only in laryngealized syllables; in non-laryngealized the tone is realized as mid-to-high rising.
[6] This tone falls across the whole range of pitch, from high to low.
[7] This tone is reported to be falling if the word is monosyllabic and falling-rising-falling if the word has two syllables or more.
[8] Interestingly, Nothern Qiang has no tone and forty-three consonants. This has been attributed to Southern Qiang’s consistent interaction with tonal Chinese (Ramsey 1987:274).
[10] Shanghai Chinese is perhaps the most well-known of the Wu ‘dialects’ and is unusual for having only five tones; most Wu dialects have seven or eight (Ramsey 1987).
[11] A Tai language
[12] ‘Checked’ tones are found only in syllables with final consonants of p, t and k. The syllable-final stops in these words are not released, hence the airflow in the mouth is ‘checked’ (Ramsey, 1987:237). In the Chinese linguistic tradition these are also referred to as ‘entering’ tones.
[13] A Thai language
[14] A Thai language
[15] A Hmong-Mien Language?
[16] An isolate
[17] A Thai language
[18] Note for many speakers this tone is not distinct from the high level tone, thus a total of nine tones are reported from some speakers.
[19] These three tones occur on stop final syllables only.