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tonal
has definitions from the field of music
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[ adjective ] employing variations in pitch to distinguish meanings of otherwise similar words
Synonyms Examples "Chinese is a tonal language" Used in print (H. A. Gleason, "Review of African language studies...)The first is a wide-ranging sample of successful tonal analyses . In many of the syllables , intonation can be safely ignored , and much of the tonal analysis can be done without any study of intonation . In the `` typical tone_language '' , tonal morphophonemics is of the same order of complexity as consonantal morphophonemics . Tonal morphophonemics , in a common case , can do nothing but either raise or lower the tone . Tonal morphophonemics is much more confusing to the beginning analyst than consonantal morphophonemics , even when the total number of rules is no greater . |
| 2 |
[ adjective ] (music) having tonality; i.e. tones and chords organized in relation to one tone such as a keynote or tonic
Used in print (Leo Lemon, "Catch Up With" and "Something to...)Not_only was Haumd 's intonation and phrasing without flaw , but he seemed to take every tonal eccentricity in_stride . |
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