Checked tone

Checked tone
Traditional Chinese入聲
Simplified Chinese入声
Literal meaningthe tone of character
'entering' tone
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyinrùshēng
Wade–Gilesju4-shêng1
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanizationyahpsīng
Jyutpingjap6 sing1
IPA[jɐp̚˨.sɪŋ˥]
Southern Min
Hokkien POJji̍p-siaⁿ
Alternative Chinese name
Traditional Chinese促聲
Simplified Chinese促声
Literal meaningthe hurried tone
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyincùshēng
Wade–Gilests'u4-shêng1
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanizationchūksīng
Jyutpingcuk1 sing1
IPA[tsʰʊk̚˥.sɪŋ˥]

A checked tone, commonly known by the Chinese calque entering tone, is one of the four syllable types in the phonology of Middle Chinese. Although usually translated as "tone", a checked tone is not a tone in the phonetic sense but rather a type of syllable that ends in a stop consonant or a glottal stop. Separating the checked tone allows -p, -t, and -k to be treated as allophones of -m, -n, and -ng, respectively, since they are in complementary distribution. Stops appear only in the checked tone, and nasals appear only in the other tones. Because of the origin of tone in Chinese, the number of tones found in such syllables is smaller than the number of tones in other syllables. Chinese phonetics have traditionally counted them separately.

Final voiceless stops and therefore the checked "tones" have disappeared from most Mandarin dialects, spoken in northern and southwestern China, but have been preserved in southeastern Chinese branches like Yue, Min, and Hakka.

Tones are an indispensable part of Chinese literature, as characters in poetry and prose were chosen according to tones and rhymes for their euphony. This use of language helps reconstructing Old Chinese and Middle Chinese pronunciations since Chinese writing system is logographic, rather than phonetic.