Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2022 March 6

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March 6

Origin of tone

When and where did the first occurrence of a word that had the meaning of tone, appeared? Tone as in "(linguistics) The pitch of a word that distinguishes a difference in meaning, for example in Chinese." (from wiktionary). I have searched on scholar.google.com, scholar.archive.org and did not expect results. — Preceding unsigned comment added by IloveUveryMuch (talk • contribs) 18:04, 6 March 2022 (UTC)

It is very likely that tonal languages appeared in early prehistory, hundreds of centuries before the invention of writing. (And if not, it is impossible to prove this.) There is no hope of pinning this down in any meaningful way.  --Lambiam 21:25, 6 March 2022 (UTC)

As I read it, the OP isn't asking for the first tonal language, but for the first usage of a term to denote "tone" in this sense. I may be wrong, though. Deor (talk) 23:36, 6 March 2022 (UTC)

Deor, you are completely correct on my main point here.  --IloveUveryMuch (talk) 00:36, 7 March 2022 (UTC)

Here's some general info:[1] --←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:46, 7 March 2022 (UTC)

The ancient Greek word "tonos" meant most literally "stretching" or "thing stretched", and so in an extended sense could refer to voice pitch (a strained voice), and thus to Greek pitch accent (and also to ictus, or stress added to certain syllables in poetry). I'm not sure when the distinction was first made between pitch-accent languages (like ancient Greek) and tonal languages (like modern Chinese or many sub-saharan African languages)... AnonMoos (talk) 01:43, 7 March 2022 (UTC)

A contribution to the Bulletins de la société d'anthropologie de Paris, published in 1872 but originating from a lecture delivered 21 December 1871, calls Thai a tonal language (langue à tons), just like Chinese and Vietnamese (annamite).^[2] A very similar passage is found in the entry thaï in the Grand dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle,^[3] in volume 15, which was issued in 1876. The entries chinois and annamite in earlier volumes do not mention tonality.  --Lambiam 10:04, 7 March 2022 (UTC)

Lambiam: Is it the first occurence of the word? IloveUveryMuch (talk) 22:37, 7 March 2022 (UTC)

I have a source dating to the late 19^th century IloveUveryMuch (talk) 22:39, 7 March 2022 (UTC)

The first occurrence of the word to refer to ancient Greek pitch accent was in during the ancient Greek period... AnonMoos (talk) 04:52, 8 March 2022 (UTC)

As to use in reference to tonal languages, there is an undated manuscript whose extended title reads:

DICCIONARIO D LENGVA MANDARINA

Cuyo primer author fue el R P fr. francisco Diaz Religioso Do-
minico annadido despues por los RR. PP. desta Miſsion de sancto
Domingo
Trasladado, emendadas algunas tonadas conforme a los Dicciona-
rios chinicos, puestas algunas en las tonadas de otras confor-
me a los Diccionarios dichos, y annadidas mas
tonadas y letras, todo segun los
Diccionarios chinicos
Por
Fr. ANTONIO DIAZ

It is assumed to be late 17th century.^[4] This copy comes from the library of Edward King, viscount Kingsborough,^[5] but another one is in the possession of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.^[6]  --Lambiam 08:54, 8 March 2022 (UTC)

The Shorter OED gives:

tone n. & v....8 a Ling. A unit of sound in many languages which distinguishes words by the different pitches of successive syllables. L17

indicating a late 17th century earliest occurrence. Unfortunately, the only quote is from Scientific American (founded 1845). I presume that the full OED would include an earlier quote to support its dating. --Verbarson ^talk_edits 20:39, 8 March 2022 (UTC)

Yes, the OED cites the diary of Robert Hooke, 14 May 1679, which mentions 'Chinese Language Tones'. - Lindert (talk) 21:51, 8 March 2022 (UTC)

The notion of tone is a very primitive one, and doesn't only exist in the context of words, but music and all sounds, typically called pitch in these general contexts. Physically it refers to the frequency of sound waves. Since most pitch carries meaning, there is no significant difference between pitch and tone other than the context used.

An editor referred to the word tonos, used in ancient greek, it refers to an accented letter, one case of a difference in pitch that carries meaning, and is reflected when written. And since tonos is the context-specific variant of the more general concept of pitch, one can assume that pitch was used in more general contexts even earlier and more often, probably even through the same word, tonos, which probably originates from music contexts, reflected in modern words such as tonal or tonic.

One would expect this concept to be discovered independently and early by almost all languages, being such a basic feature of sound. A quick search reveals this to be the case, as the concept of sound pitch was refered as early as 300 BC by Aristonexus on a treatise of Harmonies. I could not find the greek word, but the English translation for pitch appears to be tension.

This is not surprising as greek mathematics was heavily rational, and music is essentially a phenomenon of the ratios between different sound frequencies. In short, it is not difficult to believe that the ancient greeks understood enough about sound to recognize that pitch was not a feature exclusive to language, but a more general property of sound. Finally, Wiktionary (check it out) appears to clarify that tone comes from tonos, and proposes the english meanings (stress, pitch, tensions). The last coinciding with the English translation of Aristonexus treatise, which means that he probably experimented with the sound different strings produce depending on their tension, which is very similar to the tension of our vocal chords.

So there you go, the greeks are the earliest registered usage of tone that we can find, and are in fact the etymological root, it is musical in its origin, and it's highly likely that other words with this meaning predate the greek but left no records.--TZubiri (talk) 16:38, 10 March 2022 (UTC) --TZubiri (talk) 16:38, 10 March 2022 (UTC)

See Music for the study of tone.

From Aristoxenus

"The preliminary step towards a scientific investigation of music is to adjust our different notions of change of voice, meaning thereby change in the position of the voice. Of this change there are more forms than one, as it is found both in speaking and in singing ; for in each of these there is a high and low "

"Tension is the continuous transition of the voice from a lower position to a higher, relaxation that from a higher to a lower. Height of pitch is the result of tension, depth the result of relaxation. On a superficial consideration of these questions it might appear surprising that we distinguish four phenomena here instead of two, and in fact it is usual to identify height of pitch with tension, and depth of pitch with relaxation. Hence we may perhaps with advantage observe that the usual view implies a confusion of thought. In doing so we must endeavour to understand, by observing the phenomenon itself, what precisely takes place when in tuning we tighten a string or relax it." TZubiri (talk) 17:13, 10 March 2022 (UTC)