粵

Cantonese Tones
語
聲
調
 Composition of finals
Cantonese finals are composed of

a vowel
a diphthong
and a tone.
a vowel followed by a consonant
a syllabic consonant
 About Cantonese tones
• Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish
lexical or grammatical meaning. (Tone is not intonation.)
• In Cantonese, a tone can distinguish itself
because of
– its pitch
– its contour
– both its pitch and contour
in a speaker’s range.
 Range
• A speaker’s range is the distance between the
highest pitch and the lowest pitch a speaker uses.
• Most Cantonese speakers’ ranges are
approximately a minor 6th (pitch ratio 8:5) wide.
• Speakers’ ranges depend on their tessitura.
– But sometimes a group of speakers all speak in the
same “key.”
 Description of tones
• Currently (2010) in the IPA, all descriptions of tones
describe their pitch within a speaker’s range.
• Usually there are 5 levels from lowest to highest pitch.
• They can be described with words.
– Extra-high (top) tone
– High tone
– Mid tone
– Low tone
– Extra-low (bottom) tone
 Description of tones
• The 5 levels can be described using tone letters.
– ˩ is the lowest pitch and ˥ is the highest.
– Contours are described using slopes.
• e.g. the syllable /taː/ with a rising tone from the middle of the
range to the highest pitch is written [taː˧˥].
• The 5 levels can be numbered from 1 to 5.
– For Cantonese, 1 is the lowest pitch, and 5 is the highest.
– Contours are described with adjacent numbers
• e.g. the syllable /taː/ with a rising tone from the middle of the
range to the highest pitch is written [taː35].
 List of tones
(phonemic pitches of syllables)
Tone letter Jyutping S. L. Wong Examples

˥ or ˥˧ 1 1 or 7 詩 ɕiː˥ 識 ɕɪkː˥
˧˥ 2 2 史 ɕiː˧˥
˧ 3 3 or 8 試 ɕiː˧ 錫 sɛːk˧
˨˩ or ˩ 4 4 時 ɕiː˨˩
˩˧ 5 5 市 ɕiː˩˧
˨ 6 6 or 9 侍 ɕiː˨ 食 ɕɪkː˨
 List of 聲調
(traditional “tones”)
Tone name Tone letter Jyutping S. L. Wong Examples

平
陰 陰平 ˥ or ˥˧ 1 1 詩 ɕiː˥
陽 陽平 ˨˩ or ˩ 4 4 時 ɕiː˨˩

上
陰 陰上 ˧˥ 2 2 史 ɕiː˧˥
陽 陽上 ˩˧ 5 5 市 ɕiː˩˧

去
陰 陰去 ˧ 3 3 試 ɕiː˧
陽 陽去 ˨ 6 6 侍 ɕiː˨
上 上陰入 ˥ 1 7 識 ɕɪkː˥

入
陰
下 下陰入 ˧ 3 8 錫 sɛːk˧
陽 陽入 ˨ 6 9 食 ɕɪkː˨