Tone
Many dialects of Limburgish (and of Ripuarian) have a pitch accent, having two different accents used in stressed syllables. The difference between these two accents is used for differentiating both various grammatical forms of a single lexeme and minimal tone pairs one from the other. With specific regards to Limburgish, these two accents are traditionally known as sjtoettoen ("push tone") and sjleiptoen ("dragging tone"). The dragging tone is lexical while the push tone is not. For example, daa~g with a dragging tone means "a day" in Limburgish, while in many Limburgish dialects daa\g with a push tone is the plural form, "days" (in addition, can also be articulated in a neutral tone as a third possibility. In this case, it means "be good").
This difference is grammatical, but not lexical. An example of a lexical difference caused by dragging tone is the word bie\ which is articulated with a push tone and means "bee", forming a tonal minimal pair with bie~, which is articulated with a dragging tone and means "at".
Read more about this topic: Limburgish Language
Famous quotes containing the word tone:
“...I ... believe that words can help us move or keep us paralyzed, and that our choices of language and verbal tone have something—a great deal—to do with how we live our lives and whom we end up speaking with and hearing; and that we can deflect words, by trivialization, of course, but also by ritualized respect, or we can let them enter our souls and mix with the juices of our minds.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“It makes me hate accepting things that are probable when they are held up before me as infallibly true. I prefer these words which tone down and modify the hastiness of our propositions: “Perhaps, In some sort, Some, They say, I think,” and the like.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“When you listen to gongs and drums, listen to the music; when you listen to someone talk, listen to his tone of voice.”
—Chinese proverb.