Tone sandhi

Tone sandhi (Zoafntiau) in Taiwanese is the process of altering the tone of a syllable depending on the surrounding words and grammatical function. Most nouns in Taiwanese do not change tone. However, almost all verbs and adjectives do change tone when not at the end of a phrase.

Basic Rules (Tone Circle)

• If the original tone number is 5 (curving-up tone), pronounce it as tone number 7 (basic).
• If the original tone number is 7 (basic tone), pronounce it as tone number 3 (low falling).
• If the original tone number is 3 (low tone), pronounce it as tone number 2 (shouting out).
• If the original tone number is 2 (shouting tone), pronounce it as tone number 1 (high).
• If the original tone number is 1 (high tone), pronounce it as tone number 7 (basic).

• If the original tone number is 8, pronounce it as tone number 4.
• If the original tone number is 4, pronounce it as tone number 8.

See diagram and Taiwanese Hokkien#Tone sandhi for a more detailed explanation.

Examples

• køf 🔊 + hioong 🔊 = Køhioong 🔊
• tvar 🔊 + kao 🔊 = Tvafkao 🔊
• tvax 🔊 + ar 🔊 = tvarar 🔊
• baq 🔊 + zaxng 🔊 = bahzaxng 🔊
• Taai 🔊 + oaan 🔊 = Taioaan 🔊 (Taioaan)
• ki 🔊 + zhvef 🔊 = kixzhvef 🔊 (kixzhvef)
• bak 🔊 + ciw 🔊 = bagciw 🔊

Exceptions

• most nouns
• ciaf, hiaf, zef, hef, ciahniq', hiahniq'
• symmih, uixsymmih, (see Taiguo_Siong'iong_460-ji#Demonstrative_pronouns)
• basic+ar. (The basic tone syllable is excepted).

Further details

• syllables ending in "h" are usually pronounced in shouting tone, such as in bahzaxng 🔊, but not bøeq 🔊
• khix (toxngsuu) is usually treated as if originally "khiq"

External Links

• Tone sandhi

SK

• Zoanciw-oe
• Tones of Taiwanese