Definition

1. Noun:
   • Entering tone: In historical Chinese phonology and Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary, "nhập thanh" refers to a category of stopped or checked tones found in Middle Chinese. Syllables with these tones ended in an unreleased stop consonant (-p, -t, -k). In Vietnamese, these correspond to syllables ending in the letters c, ch, p, t and carrying either the sắc (acute) or nặng (heavy) diacritic.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • Trong tiếng Hán cổ, các từ thuộc "nhập thanh" có âm cuối bật hơi. (In Old Chinese, words belonging to the "entering tone" had plosive endings.)
  • Các từ Hán-Việt như "quốc" (nation), "thiết" (iron), "nguyệt" (moon) đều thuộc "nhập thanh". (Sino-Vietnamese words like "quốc," "thiết," and "nguyệt" all belong to the "entering tone" category.)

Advanced Usage

• In the study of Sino-Vietnamese phonology, the "nhập thanh" category is crucial for understanding sound correspondences between Chinese and Vietnamese, and for reconstructing historical pronunciations.

Variants and Related Words

• Thanh điệu (n): tone. The broader category of lexical tones in Vietnamese.
• Sắc (n): the high rising tone, one of the modern Vietnamese tones associated with former "nhập thanh" syllables ending in c, ch, p, t.
• Nặng (n): the heavy falling tone, the other modern Vietnamese tone associated with former "nhập thanh" syllables.

Synonyms

• Checked tone: A direct English equivalent term in phonology.
• Entering tone: The standard English translation from Chinese phonology (from Chinese ).

Related Terms

• Âm cuối vô thanh: voiceless final stop. This describes the phonetic characteristic of the original "nhập thanh" endings.
• Phân loại thanh điệu Hán-Việt: Sino-Vietnamese tone classification. "Nhập thanh" is one of the traditional tone classes, alongside (level), (rising), and (departing).