3.7: Writing Tones

How do I write tones?

Maybe after reading the previous two pages, the numbers and symbols still do not make much sense to you...

Don't worry! I will now explain how to write tones in Singlor Pengim.

Here are the required tables of tones and symbols for easier reference:

IPA + Tonal Values	Description	Singlor Pengim	Tone Change	Hanyu Pinyin	Teochew Peng’im	POJ/Tailo	Trad (HK)	Trad (TC)
a˧ (33/44)	Middle Flat	a¹	a¹	❌	a¹	a	阴平/1	阴平/1
a˧˥ (24)	Rising	á²	ǎ²⁷	á	a⁶	â	阳平/5	阳上/6
a˨˩ (21)	Low Falling	ǎ³	à³⁴	ǎ	a³	à	阴去/3	阴去/3
a˥˧ (42)	High Falling	à⁴	á⁴² a⁴¹ *ǎ⁴⁷	à	a²	á	阴上/2	阴上/2
a˥ (55)	High Flat	ā⁵	ǎ⁵⁷	ā	a⁵	ã*	❌	阳平/5
a˦ (43)	Falling/High Checked	à⁶, ā⁶	ǎ⁶⁸	❌	a⁸	a̍	阳入/8	阳入/8
a˨˩ (21)	Low Falling	ǎ⁷	ǎ⁷	❌	a⁷	ā	阳去/7	阳去/7
a˨ (2)	Low Checked	ǎ⁸	à⁸⁶, ā⁸⁶	❌	a⁴	a	阴入/4	阴入/4

Diacritic Marker	Description	For Tones	For Tone Change
a	Middle Flat	1	1, 4
ā	High Flat, High Checked	5, 6	8
á	Rising	2	4
ǎ	Low, Low Checked	3, 7, 8	2, 5, 6, 7
à	Falling, Falling Checked	4, 6	3, 8

Since Singlor Pengim uses both Tone Numbers and Diacritics, one can write tones down in 3 ways:

1️⃣ Using both tone numbers and diacritics (ǎ27-...)
- Pros: readers can infer the original and changed tones and the spoken tone if unfamilar with tone numbers
- Cons: very troublesome to write, and visually 😅

2️⃣ Using tone numbers only (a27-...)
- Pros: readers can infer the original and changed tones
- Cons: readers cannot infer any tones if unfamilar with tone numbers

3️⃣ Using diacritics only (ǎ-...)
- Pros: readers can infer the spoken tone if unfamilar with tone numbers
- Cons: readers cannot infer the original and changed tones

Tone numbers will show the tone change combincation (what tone changes to what tone) for the word, and can help learners get used to tone change. It can be written with superscript (a²⁷) or regular numbers (a27).

Diacritics, drawing inspiration from Hanyu Pinyin, can help newer readers quickly identify the tone of the word, but only shows the spoken tone (who knows if it is the original tone or the changed one?).

Here are some examples of how tones are written:

pà'86-ziam1 bhuěi7? - Vaccinate Already?

Vaccinate Already is a catchy tune made by the Singaporean government to encourage people, especially our dialect-speaking seniors, to vaccinate against COVID-19.

The song is a medley of Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese and Mandarin, and will be used as an example to show how to write in Singlor Pengim. Note that the Cantonese lyrics are in Jyutping, and the Mandarin lyrics are in Hanyu Pinyin.

Here are the lyrics!

(Hokkien)
吓，汝食饱未？
èi4, lìr4 ziǎ'68-bà4 bhuěi7?

无啦，这久是拍针未！
bhó2 la1, zìt86-gù4 sǐ7 pà'86-ziam1 bhuěi7

大家拍针未，拍针未，著较紧拍
dǎi7-gei1 pà'86-ziam1 bhuěi7, pà'86-ziam1 bhuěi7, diǒ'68 kà'86-gìn4 pǎ'8

(Teochew)
做呢无去拍，猛猛拍，啊猛猛拍
zòr34-nǐ57 bhǒr57 kìr34 pǎ'8, mé~42-mě~47 pǎ'8, a1 mé~42-mě~47 pǎ'8