TONAL LANGUAGE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does tonal language mean? 

• TONAL LANGUAGE (noun)
  The noun TONAL LANGUAGE has 1 sense:

1. a language in which different tones distinguish different meanings

  Familiarity information: TONAL LANGUAGE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TONAL LANGUAGE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A language in which different tones distinguish different meanings

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

tonal language; tone language

Hypernyms ("tonal language" is a kind of...):

natural language; tongue (a human written or spoken language used by a community; opposed to e.g. a computer language)

Meronyms (parts of "tonal language"):

tonal system; tone system (the system of tones used in a particular language or dialect of a tone language)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tonal language"):

contour language (a tone language that uses pitch changes)

register language (a tone language that uses different voice registers)