Mandarin distinguishes word meaning through four syllable-level pitch contour tones

Evidence

Mandarin Chinese is a tone language with four phonologically distinctive tones that are characterized by syllable-level fundamental frequency (F0) contour patterns. These pitch contours are described as high-level (tone 1), rising (tone 2), falling-rising (tone 3), and falling (tone 4). — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3381

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the four Mandarin lexical tones by their F0 contour patterns — useful background for any tone-language perception discussion.