Tone

Definition

Tone is the use of pitch in order to create lexical contrast (this is different from tone used for intonation). A tonal language will signal word meaning differences through the use of different tones on the same segments. High tones are marked with the acute accent (é) symbol, whereas low tones are marked with the grave accent (è) symbol over the vowel (Zsiga, 2013, p. 376).

Languages combine mid, high, and low tones in a variety of ways throughout tonal language systems, and can be classified as a contour-tone language or a register-tone language.

Examples

Hul’q’umi’num’

Skwxwú7mesh

Secwepemctsin