No.  Although (according to the almost omniscient David Crystal in his excellent Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language) well over half of the world’s languages are ‘tone’ languages, English definitely isn’t one of them.  (Actually I seem to remember hearing some other linguist on the radio saying that only about a third of the world’s languages were tone languages, but let that pass.  Does anyone out there know for a fact who’s right?)

 

We do have intonation patterns, and English (like German) is heavily stressed: but it’s NOT a tone language, since changing the tone of a syllable doesn’t by itself completely alter the meaning of a word.  (This is not to deny that changing the intonation can subtly affect the IMPLIED meaning of an utterance, as any student at Drama College can tell you.)

 

Sorry.  I’d advise coming clean with your students and putting the record straight.  They’ll respect you all the more for caring enough to want to disabuse them of this error, and for being honest enough to admit that you were wrong.  (I’m constantly having to do that with my pupils, who often know more about some subjects than I do!)

 

Kevin Maynard

 

 

Dear All,

I have been telling my students that English is also a tonal language. Do you support it?

Cheers.

Cc