Tones on other words

We can now move on from examples of 'yes' and 'no' and see how some of these tones can be applied to other words, either single-syllable words or words of more than one syllable. In the case of polysyllabic words, it is always the most strongly stressed syllable that receives the tone; the tone mark is equivalent to a stress mark. We will underline syllables that carry a tone from this point onwards.

Examples:

Fall          (usually suggests a "final" or "definite" feeling)

                stop eighty a gain

Rise         (often suggesting a question)

                /sure /really to /night

When a speaker is giving a list of items, they often use a rise on each item until the last, which has a fall, for example:

You can have it in / red, /blue, / green or black

Fall-rise          (often suggesting uncertainty or hesitation)

                        Vsome    vnearly     pervhaps

Fall-rise is sometimes used instead of rise in giving lists.

Rise-fall      (often sounds surprised or impressed)

                       Λoh     Λlovely    iΛmmense