Tones of Taiwanese

Tones of Taiwanese. In MTL, the tone is indicated by f, r, or x or modified spelling of the vowel.

Pitch vs. time of the seven tones of Taiwanese. Peh-oe-ji (POJ) is shown for the vowel a

1. af, 2. ar, 3. ax, 4. aq, 5. aa, 7. a, 8. ah

say, hor, pax, piq, hiim, chviu, lok (lion, tiger, leopard, turtle, bear, elephant, deer)

ty, bea, pax, aq, zoaa, chviu, lok (pig, horse, leopard, duck, snake, elephant, deer)

svaf, tea, khox, khoaq, laang, ea, phvi, tit (shirt, short, pants, wide, person, short, nose, straight; 衫短褲闊人矮鼻直)

Table

Tone number	Name	Description	Pitch	MTL	Example
1	dark level (ym-pviaa 陰平)	high	55	af	say 獅
2	rising (siorng 上)	shouting	51	ar	hor 虎
3	dark departing (ym-khix 陰去)	low falling	31	ax	pax 豹
4	dark entering (ym-jip 陰入)	low short	3ʔ	aq	piq 鱉, aq 鴨
5	light level (ioong-pviaa 陽平)	curving tone	24	aa	hiim 熊, guu 牛
7	light departing (ioong-khix 陽去)	basic tone	33	a	chviu 象
8	light entering (ioong-jip 陽入)	high short	5ʔ	ah	lok 鹿

"level, rising, departing, entering" or "pviaa, siorng, khix, jip" refer to the original four tones of Middle Chinese
Not shown: Tone 6 (pitch 22/33) is not widely used. Lukang accent still has the 6th tone, which has merged with the 2nd and 7th tones in other dialects of Taiwanese. Tone 9 (pitch 35) is used in Japanese loanwords and contractions. See TRS for diacritics.