Abstract
The acquisition of contour tones (e.g. Cantonese and Mandarin) poses a great challenge to learners, especially to those who have no exposure to tone languages. Numerous teaching and learning approaches have been devised to help learners distinguish between different tones. The most common method is to describe the tones as even, rising or falling, and sometimes supplemented with adjectives of high, mid and low. As such descriptions are quite abstract, to augment the understanding, the tones are plotted on a graph(s) or gestured by the teacher. Diacritics and/or numbers are used in romanisation conventions to denote different tones. Yet these cues and explanations are not specific enough for most learners. Nevertheless, different languages have different tone naming and numbering systems that are neither universal nor arranged in an order that is easy for learners to understand.
A graphical representation of Chao (1930) tone letters and numerals (Chao tones) could assist the understanding of tones to a large extent. Although Chao tones are widely used in scholarly publications, they are seldom adopted in teaching. In view of this, we sketched a simple and easy-to-follow method for reading Cantonese tones with reference to Chao’s (1930, 1947) depiction of tonal representation with musical notes (Authors, 2021). The six tones are portrayed on Chao’s five-point pitch scale. Instead of having five lines, only three lines, representing so-5, mi-3 and do-1 are shown (and hence the name ‘3-line staff notation’), and the six tones are presented like musical notes. The corresponding Chinese characters and Jyutping (without the tone number) are put under the 3-line staff, as shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1 A sentence with all six Cantonese tones is portrayed on a 3-line staff
The 3-staff notation can also be extended to portray tones in Mandarin. Apart from the four contour tones as well as the neutral tone (without any indication), special rules that are not marked in the pinyin diacritics, such as the tone sandhi and tone change, can also be indicated on the 3-line staff. This could help learners understand the rules visually. An example sentence with the four Mandarin tones (with Tone 3 realised as a half-third sandhi tone) and the neutral tone is shown in Fig. 2.
Fig. 2 A sentence showing all four Mandarin tones (with Tone 3 realised as a half-third sandhi tone) and the neutral tone is portrayed on a 3-line staff
Other than contour tones, contrastive tones (e.g. high-low tonal contrast in Chichewa) can also be presented on the 3-line staff, thus showing the universal applicability of the 3-line staff notation.
A graphical representation of Chao (1930) tone letters and numerals (Chao tones) could assist the understanding of tones to a large extent. Although Chao tones are widely used in scholarly publications, they are seldom adopted in teaching. In view of this, we sketched a simple and easy-to-follow method for reading Cantonese tones with reference to Chao’s (1930, 1947) depiction of tonal representation with musical notes (Authors, 2021). The six tones are portrayed on Chao’s five-point pitch scale. Instead of having five lines, only three lines, representing so-5, mi-3 and do-1 are shown (and hence the name ‘3-line staff notation’), and the six tones are presented like musical notes. The corresponding Chinese characters and Jyutping (without the tone number) are put under the 3-line staff, as shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1 A sentence with all six Cantonese tones is portrayed on a 3-line staff
The 3-staff notation can also be extended to portray tones in Mandarin. Apart from the four contour tones as well as the neutral tone (without any indication), special rules that are not marked in the pinyin diacritics, such as the tone sandhi and tone change, can also be indicated on the 3-line staff. This could help learners understand the rules visually. An example sentence with the four Mandarin tones (with Tone 3 realised as a half-third sandhi tone) and the neutral tone is shown in Fig. 2.
Fig. 2 A sentence showing all four Mandarin tones (with Tone 3 realised as a half-third sandhi tone) and the neutral tone is portrayed on a 3-line staff
Other than contour tones, contrastive tones (e.g. high-low tonal contrast in Chichewa) can also be presented on the 3-line staff, thus showing the universal applicability of the 3-line staff notation.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Published - 10 May 2024 |