Tones sian1diao7 聲調｜声调

You should have noticed there were numbers after the Romanised words in the last post. We have 8 (eight) tones in Teochew. In addition, we have nasal tones as well marked with the letter "n".

We call tones siaⁿ1diao7 聲調｜声调

Tones siaⁿ1diao7 聲調｜声调

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
33	53	21		55	35	11
辛	苦	種｜种	作	人	有	飯｜饭	食
sing1	kou2	zêng3	zoh4	nang5	u6	bung7	ziah8
arduously		plant	& grow	people	have	food	to eat

 This is something which our parents have taught us but nevertheless we still have to practise these tones to make sure we are not out of tune when we speak or else people may misunderstand us.

I have put together more examples for you to practise.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
san1	gao2	gao3	bêh4	gao5	gao6	bung7	bêh8
三	九	到	百	猴	厚	飯｜饭	白
3	9	until	100	monkey	thick	rice	white
ga1	do2	buan3	bêh4	lang5	biang6	uê7	tag8
鉸｜铰	短	半	百	狼	便	話｜话	讀｜读
cut	short	half	100	wolves	convenient	words	read
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
gu1	li2	dua3	bih4	hê5	hoi6	tê7	cih8
龜｜龟	鯉｜鲤	帶｜带	鱉｜鳖	蝦｜虾	蟹	䖳	蠘
turtle	carb	bring along	soft shell turtle	prawn	crab	jelly fish	small crab
hung1	hung2	hung3	hah4	hung5	hung6	hung7	hah8
菸	粉	訓｜训	瓣	雲｜云	混	份	合
ziah8 hung1	min7 hung2	buê5 hung3	gao6 hah4	hung5 tung1	hung6 ngao5	zêg8 hung7
食菸	麵粉 面粉	培訓 培训	厚瓣	雲吞 云吞	混淆	一份

You need to memorise these tones so when you hear a word been said you can find the character and also understand what has been said. 

There is a lot of material for you to learn and I will touch on changing tones tomorrow.