Tone sandhi

Tone change (tone sandhi) 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 Circles)

Taiwanese tones in isolation, and the changes they undergo when they precede another tone.

• 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-falling), 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 (high-short), pronounce it as tone number 4 (low-short).
• If the original tone number is 4 (low-short), pronounce it as tone number 8 (high-short).

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

Examples

• køf + hioong = Køhioong
• tvar + kao = Tvafkao
• baq + zaxng = bahzaxng
• Taai + oaan = Taioaan
• bak + ciw = bagciw

Exceptions

• most nouns
• ciaf, hiaf, zef, hef, ciahniq', hiahniq'
• symmih, ui symmih, (see Taiguo_Siong'iong_460-ji#Demonstrative_pronouns)
• basic tone + ar. (The basic tone syllable is excepted).
• surnames before siensvy: Taan`siensvy

Further details

• more detailed rules have been posted at Wikipedia: Taiwanese Hokkien#Tone sandhi, esp. special cases involving suffix ar (仔) and triplication
• syllables ending in "h" are usually pronounced in shouting tone, such as in bahzaxng, but not beq
• khix ("to go") is usually treated as if originally "khiq"

See also

• Tones of Taiwanese
• Banlaam-guo