← Back to catalogue
Research draft

tone

vr.tr.tone · XCT.STA

Let an agent explain linguistic tone, relay register and contour tones, tonal languages and notation from phonetics sources, describe the named systems, and distinguish tone from stress, pitch accent, intonation and the musical sense of tone.

Thing Registry Cross-cutting context

Research draft, second pass

A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.

written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify

Researched by: Claude

Purpose and description

Let an agent explain linguistic tone, relay register and contour tones, tonal languages and notation from phonetics sources, describe the named systems, and distinguish tone from stress, pitch accent, intonation and the musical sense of tone.

In phonetics and phonology, tone is the use of pitch to distinguish words or grammatical meaning, a defining feature of tonal languages, with systems the registry aliases name such as Cantonese and other Chinese tones and the tone systems of Hausa, Punjabi and Dogri; tone contrasts with stress and other suprasegmental features and ranges from register tones with level pitches to contour tones that glide. Many of the world s languages are tonal, especially in Africa, East and Southeast Asia and the Americas, and tone can be hard for speakers of non-tonal languages to learn.

What it is for: Using pitch to distinguish meaning in language.

It can be explain register and contour tones; relay tonal languages; describe named systems; distinguish related features.

Distinguishing features

Pitch distinguishes meaning

Register and contour tones

Common worldwide

Suprasegmental feature

What it looks like

Not a physical object; heard as pitch differences and marked with tone letters or diacritics.

Physical character

tone types: register and contour list

Cantonese tones: commonly analysed as six note - analyses vary

registry parents: suprasegmental, tonal phonation note

How it is recognised

Use of pitch to distinguish meaning

Punjabi tone, Dogri tone, Hausa tone, Cantonese tones, Chinese tone

Stress emphasises syllables; pitch accent marks one syllable; intonation spans phrases; musical tone is a sound quality

Related models

is a kind of - in registry terms

suprasegmental

defines -

tonal language

is contrasted with -

stress (linguistics)

is contrasted with -

pitch accent

In practice

Families and kinds

register tone systems

contour tone systems

lexical tone

grammatical tone

Standards and regulation

International Phonetic Alphabet tone notation

Failure modes and hazards

Confusing tone, stress and intonation

Assuming tone is only in East Asian languages

Confusing linguistic and musical tone

Also called

Punjabi toneDogri toneHausa toneCantonese tonesChinese tone

Where this came from

wikidata · CC0 1.0

Source repository Registry entry point

Also registered as vr.tr.tone-2

Drafted structure

Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 4 bundles · 8 layers · 8 findings · 16 questions.

Understand What linguistic tone is.

Science.

Definition

Definition.

Definition

Definition.

  1. What is tone in language, and how does it differ from stress, pitch accent, intonation and musical tone? definition
  2. Is the question about a specific language, phonetics or language learning? boundary

Systems

Named systems.

Systems

Systems.

  1. What are the Cantonese, Hausa, Punjabi and Dogri tone systems? definition
  2. Which entry fits the specific system? action
Phonetics Phonetics.

Science.

Types

Register and contour.

Types

Types.

  1. How do register and contour tones differ? provenance
  2. Which references are standard? provenance

Grammatical tone

Grammatical tone.

Grammatical tone

Grammatical tone.

  1. How can tone mark grammar as well as words? provenance
  2. Which sources are cited? provenance
Languages Tonal languages.

Sources.

Distribution

Where tone occurs.

Distribution

Distribution.

  1. Where are tonal languages common worldwide? provenance
  2. Which entry fits tonal language? action

Learning

Learning tone.

Learning

Learning.

  1. Why is tone hard for speakers of non-tonal languages, as research reports? provenance
  2. Is the presentation neutral and attributed? boundary
Context Notation.

Regulation.

IPA

Tone notation.

IPA

IPA.

  1. How is tone marked in the IPA and other systems? provenance
  2. Which entry fits International Phonetic Alphabet? action

Music

Musical tone.

Music

Music.

  1. How does linguistic tone differ from tone in music? provenance
  2. Is the information accurate? boundary

What the second pass must settle

  • Should specific tone systems be separate entries?
  • How should IPA tone notation be linked?
  • How should grammatical tone be documented?
Draft as JSON