Definition of tone language in US English:
tone language
nountoʊn ˈlæŋɡwɪdʒtōn ˈlaNGɡwij
Linguistics A language in which variations in pitch distinguish different words.
Example sentencesExamples
- Only a worldwide, comparative program of experiments can resolve the question of whether to mark tones in any given tone language at all, and if so, how much.
- Krio is non-rhotic, syllable-timed, and a tone language.
- What we needed, then, were real examples of spontaneously written text in a tone language that, like Efik, has no written literary tradition of its own.
- There are a vast number of languages that are known as tone languages or tonal languages.
- The Tlingit language is a tone language that has 24 sounds not found in English.