floating tone (English, noun)
expansion: floating tone (plural floating tones)
Senses:
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
phonology
sciences
glosses: A morpheme or element of a morpheme that contains no consonants or vowels, but only tone. It cannot be pronounced by itself, but affects the tones of neighbouring morphemes.
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
phonology
sciences
glosses: A phonemic tone which is not associated to a syllable and is only pronounced in its effect on neighboring tones, such as by causing downstep.
Forms:
form: floating tones
tags: plural