Are there any initial consonants/syllables in modern Chinese dialects which are incompatible with some tones?

Question

Can certain tones occur only in certain syllables (that is, within open or close ones)?

I am referring mainly to 普通话 (or 華語), but any other dialect will do

Which Chinese dialect? And it may be better to add some examples. — Stan, Jun 22, 2013 at 9:37
I removed the "any dialect" requirement because this makes the question overly broad and practically unanswerable by one person. — going, Jun 27, 2013 at 0:06
@xiaohouzi79 You have also deleted the reference to two dialects as well, which made the question no less broad and unanswerable by a.n.y. person. Besides, I don't suppose we have an excessive number of dialect speakers here. — Manjusri, Jun 27, 2013 at 11:25

Stumpy Joe Pete · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-23 16:45:46Z

7

Here's an example of this sort of phenomenon:

Syllables that begin with unaspirated stops b, d, g, or affricates j, zh, z, and end in a nasal n or ng, as a rule don’t have second-tone forms.

answered Jun 23, 2013 at 16:45

Stumpy Joe Pete

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Are there more like this?
– juckele
Jun 25, 2013 at 18:13
Most chinese dialects have a different set of tones for "checked" or "closed" syllables. E.g., in Cantonese, tones 7, 8, and 9 only exist in syllables ending in -p, -t, and -k.
– Stumpy Joe Pete
Jun 25, 2013 at 19:00
@StumpyJoePete: While Cantonese checked-tone syllables can be numbered separately (7/8/9) for historical reasons, in practice, they are pronounced the same as tones 1/3/6, respectively. In addition, due to 變音, they may even be pronounced in tone 2.
– Claw
Jun 27, 2013 at 2:59
@Claw So they are! Thanks for the info. Anyhow, it's easy to find other examples: In Shanghainese, all of the tones in words with a voiced initial are lower than (although the same "shape" as) the corresponding tones in words with unvoiced initials.
– Stumpy Joe Pete
Jun 27, 2013 at 4:50
1

@Claw Thanks for fixing my example. Checked tones really work as a pretty broad class of these. Since middle chinese had 8 tone categories (阴平,阳平,阴上,阳上,阴去,阳去,阴入,阳入) and only 2 of them were "checked" (the two 入 categories), the checked tones will be in complementary distribution with something. Of course it depends on how the particular language's tone categories (and syllable structure--e.g., Mandarin has no -p,-t,-k syllables) have changed over time.
– Stumpy Joe Pete
Jun 27, 2013 at 7:38

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user3871 · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-23 14:33:06Z

1

The way I understand your question is:

When two characters have similar tones, like a third tone followed by a third tone, such as:

你好 Nǐ hǎo

Mandarin speakers tend to find it easier to say if they pronounce the first character as second tone, like:

Ní hǎo

Or two fourth tones will sound too harsh, like:

不对 Bùduì

The fourth tone on 不 will change to second tone for easier pronunciation.

Let me know if I misunderstood your question.

answered Jun 23, 2013 at 14:33

user3871

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Thank you for your answer, but I think that of Stumpy Joe Pete is closer to the initial intention of it.
– Manjusri
Jun 23, 2013 at 22:00
不 and 一 were initially 入 tone syllables as 意大利 demonstrates fourth tone can follow fourth tone
– iopq
Feb 25, 2021 at 3:44

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