THAI TONE VARIANTS AND THE LANGUAGE TEACHERS

It is common knowledge to teachers of tone languages that the phonetic shapes of tones vary in different phonological environments. This paper, based upon a limited instrumental study of Thai, provides a technique by which a teacher can identify the environmental conditions under which confusion is likely to occur, Two separate methods of charting are illustrated. One shows individual tone variation, and the other shows the effect of a specified tonal environment on all five tones. Both kinds of charts are useful in teaching Thai tones.