Tones of Taiwanese
Tones of Taiwanese. The traditional tone class categorization, named after the tones of Middle Chinese:
| Tone number |
Name | Description | Pitch | MLT | 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 ) |
- tone names "level, rising, departing, entering" or "pviaa, siorng, khix, jip" are from the suosefng of Middle Chinese
- Not shown: Tone 6 ("light rising", 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 TL for diacritics.