floating tone

noun

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.

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Meanings

nounfloating tone (plural floating tones)

plural floating tones

  1. human sciencesA 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.
  2. human sciencesA phonemic tone which is not associated to a syllable and is only pronounced in its effect on neighboring tones, such as by causing downstep.
Cite this entry
APA

floating tone. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/floating%20tone

MLA

“floating tone.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/floating%20tone. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “floating tone,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/floating%20tone.

Source: floating tone on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.