Tone (English spelling)

Japanese: 声調 - せいちょう（英語表記）tone

Fluctuations in pitch within a syllable. Also called syllabary tone. Pitch accent differs from tone in that it appears not in individual syllables, but in the sound sequence that corresponds to a word (conjunction). Tones are represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet by the following symbols: high flat tone [ ^- ], low flat tone [ _- ], high rising tone [´], low rising tone [ _´ ], high falling tone [｀], low falling tone [ _｀ ], rising falling tone [＾], falling rising tone [ˇ]. In addition, there are five or more levels, and numbers from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) are used to represent 55 (high flat), 35 (high rising), etc., or a standard bar is used to represent ˥ on the left side (and , for the right side). Languages in which tones are consistent in social customs and form a distinctive system are said to have "tonemes," and such languages are called tonal languages. These tone elements are sometimes simply called tones. Modern Mandarin is generally considered to have four tones: /mā/ = [mā] (mother), /má/ = [má] (hemp), /mǎ/ = [mǎ] (horse), /mà/ = [mà] (to insult).

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

音節における声の高さの変動。音節音調ともいう。「高さアクセント」は，ひとつひとつの音節ではなく，単語（結合）に該当する音声連続に現れる点で声調とは異なる。声調は国際音声字母では次のような記号で表す。高平調［^-］，低平調［_-］，高昇調［´］，低昇調［_´］，高降調［｀］，低降調［_｀］，昇降調［＾］，降昇調［ˇ］。また，5段階などの段階を設け，1（最低）～5（最高）の数字で 55（高平），35（高昇）などとしたり，基準棒を用いて左側にそれぞれ ˥，（右側のときは，）などと表したりする。声調が社会習慣的に一定しており，弁別的な体系をなしている言語は「声調素」tonemeをもつといい，そういう言語を声調言語という。この声調素のことを単に声調ということもある。現代北京語は通例次の四つの声調素（四声）をもつとされる。/mā/＝［mā］（媽〈母〉），/má/＝［má］（麻），/mǎ/＝［mǎ］（馬），/mà/＝［mà］（罵〈ののしる〉）。

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