In tonal languages like Chinese, pitch changes alter the phoneme itself

Evidence

Chinese, pitch changes associated with syllables carry prominent linguistic information. This means that changing the pitch changes the phone, although other acoustic features remain constant. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 595

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to how pitch is a primary acoustic carrier — relevant to acoustic communication applications in tonal vs. non-tonal contexts.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 595