Chinese Tone Sandhi

Abstract

It has long been recognized that tone in Chinese (and other mainland Asian tone languages) is different from tone in African languages. Two differences are noteworthy (see also chapter 45: the representation of tone ). First, while African tone languages have small inventories of tones which can be characterized in terms of pitch levels of H (high), M (mid), and L (low), Chinese has a larger number of contrastive tones, a fact recognized in the numbers 1 (low) through 5 (high) widely used in Chinese linguistics to transcribe tones. Second, Chinese tonal inventories contain more tones with complex contours than their African counterparts. African tone has played a major role in the development of generative phonology, with Asian tone languages contributing empirical data to support or refine theoretical claims based on African tonal phenomena. Many of the tone sandhi processes that are common in African languages, such as spreading, are also attested in Chinese. Naturally, tone sandhis which involve a contour are either unique to or more common in Chinese and other Asian languages with large tonal inventories. The complexity and range of tone sandhi in Chinese have contributed to our understanding of tonal phenomena in general. The difference in the size of tonal inventory between Chinese and African languages has received scant attention from phonologists, and its theoretical significance is not fully understood.