User:Bukkia/sandboxVIII

Tones

All vowels make a distinction among six different tones, with the exception of the phonemes [æ] and [œ], which distinguish only four different tones. Tone is a clearly distinctive feature:

jò - jô
I - we

Using the vowel [a] as an example, the tones, and their graphic transcription, are:

• a: [a³³], mid tone.
• à: [a⁵³], falling tone.
• á: [a¹³], rising lower tone.
• á̱: [a²³], rising higher tone.
• â: [a³⁵³], rising-falling lower or apical lower tone.
• â: [a⁴⁵³], rising-falling higher or apical higher tone.

The mid tone is usually regarded as a neutral tone, not being graphically expressed by any diacritic mark. The rising and the falling tones are regarded as linear tones. The rising-falling and the falling-rising tones are rearded as spike tones.

The vowels [æ] and [œ] are called weak vowels, since they can express only four tones: the mid tone, the falling tone, the rising lower tone and the rising higher tone. Thus, they cannot express any spike tone.