Yes, it is time to tackle the topic of tones!! Here is a supplementary blog post to the Lunguage 003 video, for those who are interested in learning a bit more, and where my resources came from, etc. Overview of tonal languages Many Asian and African languages, such as Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Punjabi, Yorùbá, Igbo, Ewe and Zulu, are tonal languages. While most Indo-European languages such as English, German, French, Russian and Greek, are non-tonal languages. Some languages lie in the middle, they emphasize on the pitch accent instead of tones, such as Japanese, Hebrew, and Swedish. Tonal Language is a language in which different "tones" can not only give hints of emotional information, but more importantly change the meaning of a word, even if the pronunciation of the word is otherwise the same. So it is essential to identify the different tones to understand and make yourself understood in a tonal language. Cantonese is known for its complicated tonal system. In fact, tones are one of, if not the most challenging aspect especially for English (or any non-tonal language) speakers. You'd be surprised, even the locals, despite being able to speak Cantonese fluently, are not so familiar with their own tonal system. Don't be discouraged, though, we believe there are ways to make it easier to understand for learners from different language backgrounds. And mastering the tones opens the door to many more fun experience Cantonese has to offer. The Cantonese tones, 9 or 6? Just how many tones are there in Cantonese? Traditionally speaking there are "THE NINE" (A.K.A. the 9 tones of hell), which consists of what they call the "9 sounds 6 tones". No no, that does not mean there are 15, but that there are 9 different "sounds", and within the 9, there are 6 different "tones" (or pitch). Huh? Way to confuse people already. So more recently (or actually I can't even trace back to when) it has been simplified to the 6 main tones to make it less confusing than it already is. There are debates about that, too, of course, as always in the field of linguistics. So here we are going to explore how the original 9 came about, and why some scholars think it is more appropriate to lump the last 3 into the main 6, while some might beg to differ. To put it simply, if "tone" merely refers the use of "pitch" (the degree of highness or lowness of a tone) in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning, there would be 6 tones/contrasting variation of pitch in Cantonese. But if we are defining the actual Chinese word "聲調" (the closest but not exact translation to "tone"), it would include also the Entering/Checked Tones, which are not tones in the phonetic (pitch) sense but rather a syllable that ends in a stop consonant or a glottal stop (-t, -k, -p). Entering-Toned words have an abrupt and unique sound that makes them stand out from those that end with a vowel or nasal consonant, that is why they have traditionally been treated separately; despite sharing the same pitch, the sound of 7th is not exactly like 1st; 8th not exactly 3rd; and 9th not exactly 6th. Since the word "tone" is understood by English speakers quite differently, it is probably best to stick with the definition of "the differentiation of pitch" to avoid confusions. As the existence of "tones" is already a daunting enough thought for non-tonal language speakers, having 9 or more tones definitely would not be very encouraging. Sometimes compromising in translations between languages and cultures would mean the loss of some important things. So it is necessary to still introduce the Entering Tones, (tone 7-9) to Cantonese speakers and learners, even if the 6-Toned System would eventually replace the other. We dare not to omit the traditional 9 Toned-System just to make it easier, as it was classified as such for historical and linguistic reasons. Besides, it is always helpful to be aware of the possible gaps between two drastically different languages, and not assume all other languages must work the same way as our own. The value and history of tones Anyway, be it 9 or 6, tones are an indispensable part of not only Cantonese, but also Classical Chinese literature, as characters in poetry and prose were chosen according to tones and rhymes for their euphony. The use of language helps to reconstruct the pronunciation of Old Chinese and Middle Chinese (as the Chinese writing system is logographic rather than phonetic). Interestingly one would find that Cantonese resembles and preserves more characteristics of Middle Chinese more so than some other Chinese variations, for instance, Mandarin. Entering tone is one of these characteristics. Entering tones are legacy of Middle Chinese. Among the main Chinese variation groups, Cantonese, Wu, Hakka and Min are ones that have preserved this characteristic, while in most of the Mandarin and other dialects it has been lost. Understanding and explaining the relationship between modern Cantonese (or other variations) with Old/Middle Chinese concerning its Entering Tones would probably take a life time of studying and investigation, but if you have interest in the history, origin, and the appearance of Entering Tones in different Chinese Variations, please feel free to check out the links below: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checked_tone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Chinese As mentioned above, in contrast with the words ending with stop consonant, -t, -k, -p (A.K.A Entering Tones), it is the words that end with a vowel, or nasal consonant (-n, -ng, -m). There are only 6 possible consonant endings in Cantonese. You can transform a non-entering-toned word to an entering-toned word by changing its consonant ending accordingly: -n → -t e.g. 新 (new) sun1 → 失 (lose) sut1/7 -ng → -k e.g. 撐 (prop up) tsaang3 → 拆 (dismantle) tsaak3/8 -m → -p e.g. 甚 (very, what) sum6 → 十 (ten) sup6/9 The 2 secret additional entering tones Well, maybe no one ever told you before, but there are actually 2 addition tones, if you count Entering Tones as a separate thing. They are used in rarer and informal occasions and do not really have official names. Most don't even consider them tones, but a special case. But if they actually had names, they would be: 10. 上入 Mid Rising Entering (shares the same pitch as 2nd) 11. 下陽入 Low Falling Entering (shares the same pitch as 4th) Tone 10 occurs in a common Cantonese phenomenon (Taishanese too apparently) called Changed Tones (小稱變調), where a word takes on the Mid-Rising tone (Tone 2) due to a certain context or meaning. Modified tones are usually used in the second character of compounds and reduplications. For instance, 牙刷 (tooth brush) should be pronounced as "ngaah4 tsaat8" formally, but it is widely referred to as "ngaah4 tsaat10" instead by locals; 捉賊 (to catch a thief) "dzook7 tsaak9" becomes "dzook7 "tsaak10". This phenomenon also exists outside of entering tones, but that would not add an extra tone to the system. For example: 妹妹 (little sister) "mui6 mui6" becomes "mui4 mui2"; 擒擒青 (in a hurry) "kum4 kum4 tseng1" becomes "kum4 kum2 tseng1". (Other examples, 人日, 扇葉...) Tone 11 is rarer, it is when an Entering Tone takes on the Low Flat/Falling tone (Tone 4). It almost always appears with the use of Tone 10 in a reduplication. Example: 𠽌𠽌聲 (slurping sound) "suet7 suet7 seng1" becomes "suet11 suet10 seng1". This is also one of the points Chaaak raised in his article "粵語聲調 6 個 定係 9 個?" arguing why Cantonese should just have 6 tones, since the exceptional cases above would inevitably bring two more tones to the already confusing system. So to make things easier, all the Entering Tones are lumped together with their counterparts that share the same pitch. The Six Main/Basic/whatever you call it Tones: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 The Entering Tones and Their Counterparts: 7=1, 8=3, 9=6, 10=2, 11=4 So... yea. We'll just go with 6. But just know that it was not really 6. Haha. (The world is full of lies!!!! *runs away*) A musical way to learn tones As Cantonese is a tonal language that's all about pitch, music is actually a helpful way to learn tones. No worries, it does not require a whole lot of musical knowledge, as long as you can sing or know about Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So, that is all it takes. Each of the tone/pitch is like a solfège (or sol-fa), so it is not strictly a musical note like a G, or a C, but rather it is moveable and relative from one key to another; the "Do" in the key of C is a different pitch from the "Do" in the key of A, for instance. Imagine the "key" as the range of your own voice, you get to set the tone of how low the lowest (Tone 4) - your "Do" - goes down to, and how high the highest (Tone 1) - your "So" - goes up to. Your range could vary, of course, depending on the context, emotions, or how your throat feels that particular day. But once you have an anchor point, all the other tones are relative to that. By the same token, you would understand other people perfectly fine even if their range is different from yours and their Tone 4 is much much lower. There are some mnemonic devices to help memorize the different tones. The Cantonese numbers 1-10 conveniently embodies the 6 tones (all 9 actually), when read in this particular order, "3 9 4 0 5 2 7 8 6" (saam1, gau2, sei3, ling4, ng5, yee6, tsut7, baat8, look9), it will give the nine tones in order. Another common one is "三碗半牛腩麵一百碟" (saam1 woon2 boon3 ngau4 naam5 meen6 yut7 baak8 deep9), which literally just means "3.5 bowls of beef brisket noodle soup a hundred plates". As you can imagine, writing lyrics for Cantonese songs can be nerve-racking, to fill melodies with words that fit the particular pitch running up and down... Luckily its relativity makes the lyrics intelligible still in the context, but sometimes it could really miss the mark. Traditional Christian hymns translated directly from English (or Mandarin) to Cantonese in the earlier days have some pretty horrible examples unfortunately. A Life of Numbers by George Lam (intro and outro of Lunguage 003) is a famous and memorable song with lyrics of Cantonese numbers, written to fit their respective pitch. Well written Cantonese lyrics are not only easy to pick up and memorize with the melody, but also retains the beauty and implicit charm in rhyme or sound of the Cantonese language. Lastly, here is the original song for you guys. Don't miss out on the crazy middle part! Enjoy. :) Further Reads:
粵語聲調 6 個 定係 9 個?- 阿擇 (Chaaak) https://medium.com/@chaaak/%E7%B2%B5%E8%AA%9E%E8%81%B2%E8%AA%BF-6-%E5%80%8B-%E5%AE%9A%E4%BF%82-9-%E5%80%8B-4bacef5e029e Tone Language https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_language Cantonese Phonology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantonese_phonology Checked Tone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checked_tone How to read Nine "Tones" of Cantonese? (粵語九聲調)- Hong Kongese Speak Cantonese https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdxT1OEAbvg The World’s Most Musical Languages - John McWhorter https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/11/tonal-languages-linguistics-mandarin/415701/ Why Tonal Languages Aren’t as Hard as You Think - Jeremy Ginsburg https://www.fluentin3months.com/tonal-languages/ The Most Musical Languages in the World - What is a Tonal Language? https://asianabsolute.co.uk/blog/2018/07/30/the-most-musical-languages-in-the-world-what-is-a-tonal-language/
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