Tone (linguistics)

In linguistics, tone is a language's use of pitch contour, pitch register, or both to distinguish words' meanings or to serve a grammatical purpose. A particular tone is a musical pitch and its movement: whether held steady, or sliding upwards or downwards, or any complex combination of these. Simply worded, in certain languages, the tone of a given word or syllable is used to differentiate or inflect words. Some scholars also classify phonation, or changes in vocal cord vibrations, under the umbrella of tone.

All spoken languages use pitch to express emotion and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called intonation. However, certain languages—tonal languages—additionally possess what linguists call tones: using pitch and changes-in-pitch specifically to distinguish words from each other, serving the same purpose that consonant and vowel sounds do in all languages. The basic distinctive tonal patterns of such a language are sometimes called tonemes, by analogy with phonemes. Tonal languages are common in East and Southeast Asia, such as in the various Thai and Chinese languages; most languages of Africa, such as in Hausa and Yoruba; and among some indigenous people of the Americas, such as in Navajo and Mexico's Oto-Manguean languages.