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Tone Language

A tone language, tone or language, is a language where the pronunciation of syllables of a word is subject to a tone (pitch and modulation) accurate. A change in the tone may then impose another term and thus have a different meaning.

Do not confuse the tones of a tonal language with prosodic intonation , which itself expresses the mood, the mood of the speaker, and the type of assertion (statement, question mark, exclamation mark) but allows the imposition of minimal pairs. In principle, the tones of a tonal language does not exclude the prosodic intonation , insofar as it applies more to a sentence or set of words, rather than a single syllable.

The tones are discrete units as well as the phonemes but they are not segments: the tone unit, called tonme , can be perceived without the support of phonemes and can not exist without them. So these are suprasegmental units.

The tones are studied mainly by: - phonetics : to analyze physical means by which they are realized. - In phonology : to analyze their role in language.

Some languages have developed a complex system of tones. The language of the Dong of China and has 12 tones.

Summary

Examples of tonal languages

The majority of the world's languages are tonal (that is probably because this method is very rare in Europe that this fact is often ignored). One can cite, among the most famous, many languages of Southeast Asia and Far East :

Cantonese and Mandarin (as well as all other Chinese languages ( min , Wu , Hakka ...).
Thai ;
Burmese
Vietnamese ;
Ewe ;
the ear, mango languages ( Zapotec , Mixtec , Chinanteco ...)
some Mayan languages: Yucatan , Uspantque and Tzotzil
the vast majority of languages African , such as the Bantu languages of southern Cameroon.
in Europe, the Slovene , a Slavic language and the Limburg , transitional dialect between the low and medium-German , are rare examples of Indo-European tone.

Tones and accents

Is generally contrasted tonal languages Languages accentual : a tonal language would not have any tonic accent , and vice versa. In fact, some tonal languages use both processes, such as Mandarin or Thai. The main difference between phonological tone language and language main stress is that in almost all the first syllables of a word have a tone, whereas in the latter only a limited number of syllables (often one) carries the accent. The tone thus has no value or demarcating culmination (it does not serve to isolate a syllable of a word as all syllables are pronounced in a tone determined).

Similarly, the pitch accent could be confused with the system of tones. However, it is much closer to the main stress (and sometimes demarcating function culmination) than tones (which have no such function). Recall that the pitch accent touches such as stress, a limited number of syllables in a word and it is a change in vowel height more audible than the increase in intensity.

As a guide, mention may be among the pitch accent languages of Europe the Slovenian , the Serbo-Croatian and Lithuanian (or Lithuanian). Slovenian is losing its pitch accent, the Latvian (or Latvian, Lithuanian language sister) had lost. The Swedish and two Norwegian follow a more complex system called "word stress".

In India, Punjabi works well. The Sanskrit has certainly been, but is more pronounced way (except in the traditional recitation of sacred texts Vedic , but this is a later development, cf. Vedic Accent ). Similarly, the ancient Greek and Latin and, importantly for the historical phonetics of the Indo-European languages , the Indo-European. Finally, the Japanese also has a pitch accent.

The Ge'ez (Ethiopian or old), a Semitic language extinct and preserved only in Christian liturgy, has a pitch accent (a fourth), usually Oxyton for nouns in the nominative and verb forms for paroxyton combined.

Two major types of tones

There are two types of tones, the records (which are divided into spot colors and modulated tones) and tones melody.

In the first system of tones, what matters is the height, only for so-called colors, in conjunction with a modulation for the tones. In the second system is the melody, modulation independent of height.

If a language uses tones to records (alone or jointly with one-time modulation), it does not melodic tones and vice versa.

Records

The records are not carrying tones than differences in height. For there to register, so you have at least two opposable heights.

Tones point

A language like Ngbaka (Adamawa East), has three registers: the voice is either acute ( acute accent in the notation), or it is moderate ( macron ) or low ( grave accent ), regardless of the actual height. Just say more or less acute, regardless of the starting point and regardless of the voice inflections.

Thus: s, "animal" {up}; s "hunt" through {}; s "tail" {down}. (In the first example, do not assume that the voice goes up because there is an acute accent. The voice is simply acute.)

modulated tones

When a single syllable carries several books there at the same time changing the musical pitch by moving from one register to another and modulation. What is relevant, this time, it is as much height as modulation. For example, a high low modulation is effective against low high modulation, although the same heights are involved.

Thus, always Ngbaka , there are also occasional shades cited modulations on a single syllable:

low high: `'(rising high modulation);
Low medium: ` (mod. rising bass);
High medium ' (mod. down high);
High low '`(mod. descending bass);
low high low: `'` (mod. complex rising-falling);
High low high '`' (mod. complex down-cut).

Example: mb.nd after, when there is only one of the same duration that a vowel like peak of the next syllable.

Another example: KPAA is a labio-velar occlusive, that is to say that and are pronounced the same time and not as a result), "leaf" has the same time that KPA, "quiet" or KPAA Tone Melody

Songs only

In these tones, "the relevant feature is the absence or presence of melody and its variations, not the music itself up with Alternatives

In fact, these melodies can superimpose secondary characteristics:

the starting point of the melody (in Burmese : a falling tone from opposing a low falling tone starting from above);
the distance between departure and arrival (in Mandarin: a two tone is characterized by a large difference between the starting point and ending point, which is manifested by a rising tone thus necessarily low enough to achieve above, to prevent the strangulation voice. It's a tone that demands great vocal range, not a fixed starting point);
the duration of the realization of the melody (in Cantonese: tone down short, medium or long);
the change in vocal intensity (in some uses mandarins);
the brutal suppression of the intensity glottalisation final melody, or "strangulation" of the voice in Vietnamese.

Distinguish between modulated tones and melodies can be complex. What is relevant is that a modulated tone can only exist in a system of records independent of any modulation. However, Mandarin, for example, has no records clean. His tones are so melodic. The gap between the point of departure and of arrival may however be of some importance, which is secondary.

Thus, in Vietnamese :

your equal (or lack of melody): O Sandhi tonal

In tonal languages, it is common for syllables intones influence and change in contact. This is the tone sandhi.

Bibliography

Introduction to phonetics, JMC Thomas, L. Bouquiaux and F. Cloarec-Heiss;
Elements of General Linguistics, A. Martinet.

Language typology

suprasegmental

to focus intensity pitch accent in -tone

rhythmic

syllabic accentual morique

morphological

insulating / analytical agglutinating Inflectional Synthetic polysynthetic melt summary index

syntactic

by order of actants	SOV SL VSO YOUR FSO OVS V2
by location modifiers	Centrifugal centripetal
by order of circumstants	time-place-manner time-place-manner

morphosyntactic

by structure Actance	accusative ergative dual Tripartite to fracture Actance
by rule	the topic The theme of the theme as the subject or the subject or the subject
by location marking	marking head marking dependent double marking Non-marking
other	to differential marking of the object in classifiers