<p>My personal opinion is the dearth of syllables in Chinese.</p>
<p>Whereas English has 10000+ different sounds, Chinese only has about 400. To increment the expressive possibilities, tones developed. Still, assuming every syllable in Chinese has 5 tones (not always the case), Chinese still only has 2000 syllables.</p>
<p>Using Pinyin input, enter yao, or zhi. There are an amazing number of words.</p>
<p>The third tone is only the third tone when a word is pronounced alone. In combination with other characters, it is not pronounced as a third tone.</p>
<p>English, with its constant use of stress and schwa highlights the important content words.</p>
<p>Chinese uses tones to direct you to the intended meaning.</p>
<p>Just my amateur opinion!</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-22T00:33:40.663Z
Chinese language is merging the words like 2 character words, 3 character words. So without tones chinese can understand most of the words without tones also? Like how English we can understand without perfect grammar?
user27485
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-22T20:45:01.107Z
"The third tone is only the third tone when a word is pronounced alone. In combination with other characters, it is not pronounced as a third tone." May I ask, what do you mean by this?
MuchAppreciated25
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-23T23:12:35.237Z
@MuchAppreciated25 third tones are only pronounced "falling-rising" when they are said by themselves, in actual speech they are more of a low flat or a low flat that rises towards the end. So treat first tones as high flats and third tones as low flats unless the third tone is said by itself, then you emphasize the falling-rising nature
小奥利奥
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-21T23:37:18.060Z
2021-03-21T23:37:18.060Z
Pedroski
<p>Old Chinese did not have tones but had consonant clusters, and a larger number of consonants.  It gradually lost consonants and simplified all consonant clusters to single consonants and had to disambiguate words by tone.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-22T05:19:14.247Z
2021-03-22T05:19:14.247Z
kwaalaateimaa
<p>My native language does not have tones. Why tones are part of Chinese language? How the tones were started initially?</p>
<p>Is it because they do not have so many words?</p>
<p>In my native language full sentences tone changes normally more than words. But in general</p>
<ol>
<li>The first tone is for general discussion, no high feelings are Low feelings.</li>
<li>Second tone or rising tone is to raise voice, question aggressively...</li>
<li>Third tone is respect</li>
<li>Fourth is like commanding.</li>
</ol>
<p>In world how many languages have tones?
What happens if I just hear the voice of word from dictionary voice and follow the same?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-21T07:07:58.633Z
What is your native language?
Wayne Cheah
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-21T07:25:34.763Z
Telugu - An Indian Language
user27485
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-21T11:16:03.260Z
Thank you. In my view, your question is practically impossible to answer. It's like asking why there are no tones in Telugu. Let's see what other contributors have to say.
Wayne Cheah
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-21T11:40:44.937Z
The second set of questions is more suitable for [Linguistics SE](https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/). The first part might be answerable here
blackgreen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-21T11:44:38.520Z
To understand how tones emerge (tonogenesis), you may want to read this: https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=4906. To understand why Mandarin has exactly four tones (but some other dialects have more/fewer), you may want to read this: https://www.reddit.com/r/linguistics/comments/3w6ga8/tone_splitsmergers_in_chinese/.
L Parker
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-21T18:25:17.680Z
I don't  know the Indian language, but most languages have "accent" to make the speech be more easily understood through the different tones/tunes. I think your claim on your language could be false, otherwise, when Indian speaks, everybody will likely fall in sleep by the "mono-tone/tune" :)
r13
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-21T23:37:57.773Z
r13, Tones and tunes are different, they are not same. All 25+ Indian languages plus English and other languages does not have these 4 tones. But all we have is different pitch, tunes etc But tone never changes the meaning of a word but feelings 

Please listen to sample music and lyrics of Indian Music and you will be amazed, and it make you sleep or it will make you active, energetic, but not just changing the 4 tones as such.
user27485
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-21T23:38:52.667Z
A tone is a single sound/note, but a tune is a progression of notes (like a song - it is also an informal term for song).
user27485
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-21T23:40:24.120Z
Please note the difference between ‘tones’ and ‘intonation’: https://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/cgi-bin/moreabout.pl?tyimuh=intonation
L Parker
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-23T09:26:47.610Z
In India, Punjabi is well known for relatively recent tonogenesis: [ਘਡ਼ੀ & ਕਡ਼ੀ  vs ਕਡ਼੍ਹੀ and ਝਾ & ਚਾ vs ਚਾਹ are good examples](https://clyp.it/d5fmcvxb).
Michaelyus
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-23T12:25:32.403Z
@27485 I think you are right. English does not have tone, but "accent".
r13
<tones><history>
How the 4 tones originated?
# How the 4 tones originated?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-03-21)

My native language does not have tones. Why tones are part of Chinese language? How the tones were started initially?

Is it because they do not have so many words?

In my native language full sentences tone changes normally more than words. But in general

1. The first tone is for general discussion, no high feelings are Low feelings.
2. Second tone or rising tone is to raise voice, question aggressively...
3. Third tone is respect
4. Fourth is like commanding.

In world how many languages have tones?
What happens if I just hear the voice of word from dictionary voice and follow the same?

**Tags:** tones, history

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: What is your native language?  
> **username_0**: Telugu - An Indian Language  
> **username_1**: Thank you. In my view, your question is practically impossible to answer. It's like asking why there are no tones in Telugu. Let's see what other contributors have to say.  
> **username_2**: The second set of questions is more suitable for [Linguistics SE](https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/). The first part might be answerable here  
> **username_3**: To understand how tones emerge (tonogenesis), you may want to read this: https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=4906. To understand why Mandarin has exactly four tones (but some other dialects have more/fewer), you may want to read this: https://www.reddit.com/r/linguistics/comments/3w6ga8/tone_splitsmergers_in_chinese/.  
> **username_4**: I don't  know the Indian language, but most languages have "accent" to make the speech be more easily understood through the different tones/tunes. I think your claim on your language could be false, otherwise, when Indian speaks, everybody will likely fall in sleep by the "mono-tone/tune" :)  
> **username_0**: r13, Tones and tunes are different, they are not same. All 25+ Indian languages plus English and other languages does not have these 4 tones. But all we have is different pitch, tunes etc But tone never changes the meaning of a word but feelings   Please listen to sample music and lyrics of Indian Music and you will be amazed, and it make you sleep or it will make you active, energetic, but not just changing the 4 tones as such.  
> **username_0**: A tone is a single sound/note, but a tune is a progression of notes (like a song - it is also an informal term for song).  
> **username_3**: Please note the difference between ‘tones’ and ‘intonation’: https://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/cgi-bin/moreabout.pl?tyimuh=intonation  
> **username_5**: In India, Punjabi is well known for relatively recent tonogenesis: [ਘਡ਼ੀ & ਕਡ਼ੀ  vs ਕਡ਼੍ਹੀ and ਝਾ & ਚਾ vs ਚਾਹ are good examples](https://clyp.it/d5fmcvxb).  
> **username_4**: @27485 I think you are right. English does not have tone, but "accent".  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_6 on 2021-03-21. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

My personal opinion is the dearth of syllables in Chinese.

Whereas English has 10000+ different sounds, Chinese only has about 400. To increment the expressive possibilities, tones developed. Still, assuming every syllable in Chinese has 5 tones (not always the case), Chinese still only has 2000 syllables.

Using Pinyin input, enter yao, or zhi. There are an amazing number of words.

The third tone is only the third tone when a word is pronounced alone. In combination with other characters, it is not pronounced as a third tone.

English, with its constant use of stress and schwa highlights the important content words.

Chinese uses tones to direct you to the intended meaning.

Just my amateur opinion!

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Chinese language is merging the words like 2 character words, 3 character words. So without tones chinese can understand most of the words without tones also? Like how English we can understand without perfect grammar?  
> **username_7**: "The third tone is only the third tone when a word is pronounced alone. In combination with other characters, it is not pronounced as a third tone." May I ask, what do you mean by this?  
> **username_8**: @username_7 third tones are only pronounced "falling-rising" when they are said by themselves, in actual speech they are more of a low flat or a low flat that rises towards the end. So treat first tones as high flats and third tones as low flats unless the third tone is said by itself, then you emphasize the falling-rising nature  

---

### Answer by username_9 on 2021-03-22. Score: 3

Old Chinese did not have tones but had consonant clusters, and a larger number of consonants. It gradually lost consonants and simplified all consonant clusters to single consonants and had to disambiguate words by tone.


---

