The Tones

Happy Thanksgiving!

We mentioned that Cantonese is a tonal language. Tones are an integral part of a word -- the meaning of a sound depends on the tone. Different tone = different word.

Tone refers to the pitch of one's voice in pronouncing a word. You pronounce some words at a higher pitch than others, and some words at a lower pitch than others.

This is an unsettling way of speaking, and often takes months for some people to get used to it (and many don't). After all, we pronounce each word in English using just one flat boring pitch (Oh, really? No! We do NOT. Duh.)

Fortunately, the range of tones is quite limited, and every single one is in use in standard English and cetainly within reach of anyone who can speak English. Note that you do not have to squeak out the high tones at Bernadette Peters' pitch or resonate at the low tones of Lurch (Addams Family), although that would certainly be fun.

Sometimes, the problem is not the tones itself. If you can sing do-re-mi, you will do fine. Sometimes, the problem is mindset. Some people just cannot believe that tones affect not just the meaning of the word, but actually changes the word into an unrelated one. Some people believe that they are exempt from this rule. They're not. You're not. I'm not. If you don't use the right tone, you won't be understood.

In the movie Jurassic Park, the children were told that if you stand still, the T-Rex will not 'see' you even if you were standing right in front of it and even if it was looking for you. It's hard to believe, and all your instincts say 'run!'. It's the same with Cantonese. No matter how earnest you are in pronouncing a word, no matter how earnest your listener is, if you speak words at the wrong tone, you won't be understood.

How many tones do we have to learn? Formally, there are supposed to be 10. But according to some teachers, only seven are in actual use, even by native speakers. Since we're not linguists, we restrict ourselves to the seven:

1 - High Falling
2 - Middle Rising
3 - Middle Level
4 - Low Falling
5 - Low Rising
6 - Low Level
* - Modified Tone

If we take your normal pitch as your Middle Level tone, then you pronounce High Falling tones at a higher pitch than your normal tone. Again, you do not change your voice into Mickey Mouse; you just pronounce it at a higher tone, as you would the "yeah" in 'oh, yeah?

For another insight, let's take that your normal pitch is at 'mi' in do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do. Then you can pronounce Low Level words at the same tone as the first 'do', and you can pronounce High Falling at the same pitch as 'sol'. (We stress can because you can go even higher or even lower, as you prefer).

It is the relativeness of the pitch that is important. Cantonese does not demand absolute pitch. There is no one universal fixed pitch for each word -- we do not have to pronounce the same word at the exact same pitch as every other person. You just have to pronounce them at a higher or lower pitch relative to your own normal pitch. I may pronounce Middle Tones at a higher pitch than you do, but it's still middle tone.

Next: We lied. Each word does not have one tone, but two tones.