tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674533288609171573.post8387002697815275457..comments2023-08-25T22:42:44.422+08:00Comments on Mandarin Segments: Mandarin has FIVE tones (I said five, not four!)Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11197148648944758867noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674533288609171573.post-82956790740274974032021-01-11T16:46:34.665+08:002021-01-11T16:46:34.665+08:00Here is something to think about... isn't it c...Here is something to think about... isn't it contradicting to say the 5th tone is "toneless" (or as I heard others say that it has no tone)? I'm not making any argument - just ponder on it. 😁Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10871894299457169576noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674533288609171573.post-73725133893152608162014-08-03T20:05:02.545+08:002014-08-03T20:05:02.545+08:00Hi Olle, thanks for that. Yes - when I read that ...Hi Olle, thanks for that. Yes - when I read that Wikipedia article (that I linked to above) I realised how complex the neutral tone really is. And I think you distilled the key points into a short paragraph - compared with their long descriptions :-) Thanks<br /><br />In this post, I was trying to remove the relevance of context and 'other factors' by limiting my consideration to single words - each of which has a 'toned' and a 'untoned' pronunciation.<br /><br />Thanks again for your input<br />GregGreghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11197148648944758867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4674533288609171573.post-63955738913037102832014-08-03T16:54:25.962+08:002014-08-03T16:54:25.962+08:00The reason the neutral tone is usually not conside...The reason the neutral tone is usually not considered a fifth tone is that it's used on unstressed syllables where the tone can change quite a bit depending on linguistic context. Even if there is a standard way of reading a certain word containing a neutral tone, than pronunciation might vary a lot in a sentence based on intonation and other factors. The basic rule of neutral tones is that they shouldn't have the original pitch contour, but which tone they actually have in practice depends on factors which aren't related to the character or word at all, which is why it isn't treated as a separate tone.Olle Lingehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03970650045402289087noreply@blogger.com