Tonal Languages - Phonetic Notation

Phonetic Notation

There are three main approaches to notating tones in phonetic descriptions of a language.

• The easiest from a typological perspective is a numbering system, with the pitch levels assigned numerals, and each tone transcribed as a numeral or sequence of numerals. Such systems tend to be idiosyncratic, for example with high tone being assigned the numeral 1, 3, or 5, and so have not been adopted for the International Phonetic Alphabet.
• Also simple for simple tone systems is a series of diacritics, such as ⟨ó⟩ for high tone and ⟨ò⟩ for low tone. This has been adopted by the IPA, but is not easy to adapt to complex contour tone systems (see under Chinese below for one work-around). The five IPA diacritics for level tones are ⟨ő ó ō ò ȍ⟩. These may be combined to form contour tones, ⟨ô ǒ o᷄ o᷅ o᷆ o᷇ o᷈ o᷉⟩, though font support is sparse. Sometimes a non-IPA vertical diacritic for a second, higher, mid tone is seen, ⟨o̍⟩, so that in a language with four (or six) level tones, they may be transcribed ⟨ó o̍ ō ò⟩.
• The most flexible system is that of tone letters, which are iconic schematics of the pitch trace of the tone in question. They are most commonly used for complex contour systems, as in Liberia and southern China.