Tones
Tone in tonal languages like Chinese or some African languages is marked with accent-like characters written to the right of the corresponding syllable. The tone system employed in Lepsius' 1863 version is as follows (using the yin values of the Chinese tones for reference):
| S.A. | Pinyin | IPA | Name |
|---|---|---|---|
| maˏ | mā, má | ma˥, ma˧˥ | level tone (平聲) |
| ma´ | mǎ | ma˨˩˦ | rising tone (上聲) |
| ma` | mà | ma˥˩ | departing tone (去聲) |
| maˎ | — | — | entering tone (入聲) |
Yang values are written with a small line under the accent mark. Tonal African languages written in this alphabet would use the acute accent to mark high tones, the grave accent to mark low tones and leave the mid tone unmarked.
Read more about this topic: Standard Alphabet By Lepsius
Famous quotes containing the word tones:
“There sighs, lamentations and loud wailings resounded through the starless air, so that at first it made me weep; strange tongues, horrible language, words of pain, tones of anger, voices loud and hoarse, and with these the sound of hands, made a tumult which is whirling through that air forever dark, as sand eddies in a whirlwind.”
—Dante Alighieri (1265–1321)
“And this mighty master of the organ of language, who knew its every stop and pipe, who could awaken at will the thin silver tones of its slenderest reeds or the solemn cadence of its deepest thunder, who could make it sing like a flute or roar like a cataract, he was born into a country without literature.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“‘Tis not that thy mien is stately,
‘Tis not that thy tones are soft;”
—Charles Stuart Calverley (1831–1884)