Four tones (Middle Chinese)

The *fourtone classes* of Chinese
꜂上shǎng	去꜄ qù
꜀平 píng	入꜆ ru(ʔ)

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The four tones of Chinese poetry and dialectology (simplified Chinese: 四声; traditional Chinese: 四聲; pinyin: sìshēng) are four traditional tone classes^[1] of Chinese words. They play an important role in Chinese poetry and in comparative studies of tonal development in the modern varieties of Chinese, both in traditional Chinese and in Western linguistics. They correspond to the phonology of Middle Chinese, and are named even or level (平 píng), rising (上 shǎng), departing or going (去 qù), and entering or checked (入 rù).^[2] (The last three are collectively referred to as oblique 仄 (zè), an important concept in poetic tone patterns.) They are reconstructed as mid (˧ or 33), mid rising (˧˥ or 35), high falling (˥˩ or 51), and mid (˧ or 33) with a final stop consonant respectively.^[3] Due to historic splits and mergers, none of the modern varieties of Chinese have the exact four tones of Middle Chinese, but they are noted in rhyming dictionaries.

^ A "tone class" is a lexical division of words based on tone. The four tones may not directly correspond with phonemic tone. The three tones of open syllables in Middle Chinese contrast with undifferentiated tone in checked syllables, and words are classified according to these four possibilities.
^ Baxter, William H. (1992). A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. p. 33. ISBN 3-11-012324-X.
^ Wang, William S.-Y.; Sun, Chaofen (2015-02-26). The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Linguistics. Oxford University Press. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-19-026684-4. It is commonly accepted that the pingsheng is with a level contour, the shangsheng a high rising tone, the qusheng a falling tone, and the rusheng a checked tone. Thus their tonal values may be reconstructed as ˧33, ˧˥35, ˥˩51, and ˧3ʔ, respectively.

[1] A "tone class" is a lexical division of words based on tone. The four tones may not directly correspond with phonemic tone. The three tones of open syllables in Middle Chinese contrast with undifferentiated tone in checked syllables, and words are classified according to these four possibilities.

[Baxter-2] Baxter, William H. (1992). A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. p. 33. ISBN 3-11-012324-X.

[3] Wang, William S.-Y.; Sun, Chaofen (2015-02-26). The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Linguistics. Oxford University Press. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-19-026684-4. It is commonly accepted that the pingsheng is with a level contour, the shangsheng a high rising tone, the qusheng a falling tone, and the rusheng a checked tone. Thus their tonal values may be reconstructed as ˧33, ˧˥35, ˥˩51, and ˧3ʔ, respectively.

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Four tones (Middle Chinese)

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