Division of Tone Space
The International Phonetic Association suggests using the tone letters to represent phonemic contrasts. For example, if a language has a single falling tone, then it should be transcribed as /˥˩/, even if this tone does not fall across the entire pitch range.
For the purposes of a precise linguistic analysis there are at least three approaches: linear, exponential, and language-specific. A linear approach is to map the tone levels directly to fundamental frequency (f0), by subtracting the tone with lowest f0 from the tone with highest f0, and dividing this space into four equal f0 intervals. Tone letters are then chosen based on the f0 tone contours over this region. This linear approach is systematic, but it does not always align the beginning and end of each tone with the proposed tone levels. Chao's earlier description of the tone levels is an exponential approach. Chao proposed five tone levels, where each level is spaced two semitones apart. A later description provides only one semitone between levels 1 and 2, and three semitones between levels 2 and 3. This updated description may be a language-specific division of the tone space.
Read more about this topic: Tone Letter
Famous quotes containing the words division of, division, tone and/or space:
“Imperialism is capitalism at that stage of development at which the dominance of monopolies and finance capitalism is established; in which the export of capital has acquired pronounced importance; in which the division of the world among the international trusts has begun, in which the division of all territories of the globe among the biggest capitalist powers has been completed.”
—Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870–1924)
“God and the Devil are an effort after specialization and the division of labor.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
“If the oarsmen of a fast-moving ship suddenly cease to row, the suspension of the driving force of the oars doesn’t prevent the vessel from continuing to move on its course. And with a speech it is much the same. After he has finished reciting the document, the speaker will still be able to maintain the same tone without a break, borrowing its momentum and impulse from the passage he has just read out.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C)
“I take SPACE to be the central fact to man born in America.... I spell it large because it comes large here. Large and without mercy.”
—Charles Olson (1910–1970)