In tonal languages, tone names are the names given to the tones these languages use.
Chinese
In contemporary standard Chinese (Mandarin), the tones are numbered from 1 to 4. They are descended from but not identical to the historical four tones of Middle Chinese, namely level (), rising (), departing (), and entering (), each split into yin () and yang () registers, and the categories of high and low syllables.
Vietnamese
Standard Vietnamese has six tones, known as ngang, sắc, huyền, hỏi, ngã, and nặng tones.
Thai Thai has five phonemic tones: mid, low, falling, high and rising, sometimes referred to in older reference works as rectus, gravis, circumflexus, altus and demissus, respectively.Frankfurter, Oscar. Elements of Siamese grammar with appendices. American Presbyterian mission press, 1900 (Full text available on Google Books) The table shows an example of both the phonemic tones and their phonetic realization, in the IPA.
ToneThaiExamplePhonemicPhoneticExample meaning in Englishmidสามัญ นา paddy fieldlowเอก หน่า or (a nickname)fallingโท หน้า face, fronthighตรี น้า or maternal aunt or uncle younger than one's motherrisingจัตวา หนา or thick
See also Tone letter Tone number Archaic & modern four tones in Chinese
References