Tone is the variation of pitch to distinguish words. The same sequence
of segments can be different words if uttered with different tones. English
is not a tone language. Chinese is a typical tone language. The number
of tones vary from one tone language to another. In Mandarin Chinese,
there are four tones. The first is level, the second is rise, the third
is fall-rise, and the fourth fall. M
(mother), m
(hemp)
m
(horse) m
(scold), for example, are four words distinguished only by tones. Tone
is clearly a distinctive feature.
