Tone name
Names assigned to tone types in tonal languages
title: "Tone name" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["tone-(linguistics)", "linguistics-terminology", "chinese-language", "vietnamese-language"] description: "Names assigned to tone types in tonal languages" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_name" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Names assigned to tone types in tonal languages ::
In tonal languages, tone names are the names given to the tones these languages use.
Chinese
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Pinyin_Tone_Chart.svg" caption="Pitch contours of the four Mandarin tones"] ::
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.
Vietnamese
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Vietnamese_tone_northern.svg" caption="pages=1–18}}"] ::
Standard Vietnamese has six tones, known as ngang, sắc, huyền, hỏi, ngã, and nặng tones.
Thai
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. The table shows an example of both the phonemic tones and their phonetic realization, in the IPA. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Thai_tones.svg" caption="Thai language tone chart"] ::
::data[format=table]
| Tone | Thai | Example | Phonemic | Phonetic | Example meaning in English |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mid | สามัญ | นา | paddy field | ||
| low | เอก | หน่า | or | (a nickname) | |
| falling | โท | หน้า | face, front | ||
| high | ตรี | น้า | or | maternal aunt or uncle younger than one's mother | |
| rising | จัตวา | หนา | or | thick | |
| :: |
References
References
- (1998). "Tones and voice quality in modern northern Vietnamese: Instrumental case studies". [[Mon-Khmer Studies]].
- 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)
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