The Five Toisanese Tones

According to Wikipedia, there are five basic tones when speaking Toisanese. The tonal system is similar to the Jyutping or Pinyin system used for Cantonese or Mandarin, respectively. Toisanese is a language based on tones so if you are not careful in speaking the right tone, your words may end up sounding like another word instead.

I suggest you check out the Siyi Genealogy website where they go into depth on the pronunciation of the tones.

I created a chart of the five Toisanese tones below. The American attitude section is just a guide for your voice. You do not need to act it out when speaking Toisanese, but you do have to remember the range of the tone created with your voice. Use a calm tone of voice for each tone regardless of the attitude.

Tone Number	Description	Explanation and Examples of an American Tone and American Attitude	Jyutping Tone Comparison
1	High Even →	This sound is the same for the Pinyin 1st tone and the Jyutping 1st tone. An element of surprise or strong feeling: Hey, you! Stop! (You say while running after a robber who just stole your belongings. Remember this tone of voice as opposed to the way these words are normally spoken.) Remember, in Chinese, this tone is not normally stressed – just remember how high it sounds.	1
2	Mid Even →	This sound is about the same as the Jyutping 3rd tone or the Pinyin 5th tone that is drawn out. An element of hesitation or neutrality: Umm…Ahh…Eh…E.T. go-home. (You say while in thought. Voice never fluctuates. Or you can try robot speak where everything is monotone. Either way, your natural tone is your 3rd tone.)	3
3	Low Even →	This sound is about the same as the Jyutping 6th tone. An element of creepiness: Hm… (You don’t have to be creepy as long as you speak in a low-pitched voice. Can you speak in a monotone low voice like Darth Vader, a mummy, or a zombie?)	6
4	Start Mid, End Low →↘→	This tone is about the same as Jyutping 4th tone except the tone starts higher, starting from the mid-tone. It is similar to the Pinyin 4th except the tone starts lower from the mid-tone and the tone does not have to sound harsh. An element of using connection or matter-of-fact speech: Also, neither, whether (I’m aware that you can probably say these words in different tones, but in this case, say them slowly and feel your voice going downwards during the second syllable. AL-SO, NEI-THER, WHE-THER)	High 4th
5	Start Low, End Lower →↘→	This tone matches the Jyutping 4th tone. An element of dramatic creepiness: Ugh. Low. (This one is a bit hard to explain since there aren’t many low sounds in English. Actually, Toisanese words do not need dramatic creepiness, but do keep in mind the tone of voice you are using when speaking the fifth tone. Feel your voice going lower in the second syllable, created when you speak slowly: U-gh, Lo-w.)	4

Toisanese Tone Changes ↗

Now that we covered the five basic tones, I will introduce an extra tone change. Did you notice that none of the original five tones go upwards in range? Some Toisanese words have an additional rising tone after the original tone.

Second tone + Rising tone →↗ (Similar to a Pinyin 2nd tone or a Jyutping 2nd tone)

American Tone Example: Huh?

Third tone + Rising tone →↗ (Sounds like the Jyutping 5^th tone)

American Tone Example: What?

Fourth tone + Rising tone →↘→↗

American Tone Example: Imply. IM →↘ - P → LY ↗.

Fifth tone + Rising tone →↘→ ↗ (Sounds like a Pinyin 3^rd tone)

American Tone Example: Unfree. UN →↘ - FR → - EE ↗.

Note: The first tone is an exception where the tone does not change.

My American tone examples are approximations, but I hope you can understand the basic idea.

How to Notate the Toisanese Tones:

Each Toisanese word will either have a diacritical mark above the first vowel or a number after the word to indicate which tone number you should use while reading a word. There are exceptions as to where to put the diacritical mark when there is more than one vowel such as when the vowels are “iu” and “ui.” In those cases, the diacritical mark is placed on the second vowel instead.

An example chart:

Tone Number	1	2	3	4	5
Diacritical Mark	hēo	hëo	hẽo	hèo	hêo
Number Mark	heo1	heo2	heo3	heo4	heo5

I tend to like to use numbers after a word just to be clear with my readers and numbers are easier to type than diacritical marks. You can definitely check the Siyi Genealogy's website for more info on diacritical marks. I don’t believe diacritical marks are widely used for the Toisanese language so even if you are not exposed to it, it will not be much of a problem. In fact, a lot of people still refer to the Jyutping system to explain the Toisanese language. I was going to go that route too, but since I found out about the Gene M Chin Romanization method, I will try using it on my blog. A lot of people who are exposed to Toisanese most likely already have a background in Cantonese. If this is not the case, I would invite you to my future Cantonese blog so you can at least learn Jyutping Romanization, but unfortunately, my Cantonese blog has not started yet. I will post up a link when it is ready.

Notating the Extra Rising Tone:

I will adopt the Siyi Genealogy’s approach to tonal changes by using a “/” forward slash after the tone.  Let’s use their example.

Toisanese Example: oi4/   (a bag)

Can you guess how this word would sound?

ANSWER:  Ooi. O (falling tone - 4) - oi (rising tone - /). Almost rhymes with the word, Ahoy! (Uh-hoy! Feel your voice going down during the “Uh-“ part and feel your voice rising in “hoy.”)

O… →↘ ↗ I… → (If Toisanese were music and each letter gets a beat, oi4/ would be notated: Oooi.)

I really broke down the word as if it was said slowly with exaggeration. I recommend that you quicken the pace after you have mastered the correct tones. Otherwise, I recommend speaking at turtle speed at first. Eventually, you won’t have to think of the tones at all after you mastered the word just like when you would not think of the tones at all when you say, “Ahoy!” The word would sound weird if you used any other tone combination.

If you are completely new to the language of Toisanese, it may be difficult to learn Toisanese without listening to somebody speak Toisanese. I encourage you all to look up some Youtube videos where natives speak Toisanese. I think that the majority of us stumbled upon this page because we already have some background in Toisanese. I would find it strange that anyone would voluntarily want to learn Toisanese as a completely new language, but if you are one of those people, I’d like to hear from you and hear your thoughts about why you would like to learn Toisanese and what you would like to learn so I can have a better idea on what kinds of topics to write in the future. I am still learning and writing down the language myself so there is still a lot I do not know.