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:
“He doesn’t know a damn thing about China ... That’s what makes him an expert. He knows nothing about music, being tone deaf. That’s what makes him a musician ... And he’s batty in the head. That’s what makes him a philosopher.”
—William Carlos Williams (1883–1963)
“There was about all the Romans a heroic tone peculiar to ancient life. Their virtues were great and noble, and these virtues made them great and noble. They possessed a natural majesty that was not put on and taken off at pleasure, as was that of certain eastern monarchs when they put on or took off their garments of Tyrian dye. It is hoped that this is not wholly lost from the world, although the sense of earthly vanity inculcated by Christianity may have swallowed it up in humility.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Self-confidence is apt to address itself to an imaginary dullness in others; as people who are well off speak in a cajoling tone to the poor.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)