Tone name


In tonal languages, tone names are the names given to the tones these languages use.

Chinese

In contemporary standard Chinese, 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

Standard Vietnamese has six tones, known as ngang, sắc, huyền, hỏi, ngã, and nặng tones.

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 International [Phonetic Alphabet|IPA].
ToneThaiExamplePhonemicPhoneticExample meaning in English
midสามัญนาpaddy field
lowเอกหน่า or
fallingโทหน้าface, front
highตรีน้า or maternal aunt or uncle younger than one's mother
risingจัตวาหนา or thick