A tonal language is a type of language in which the pitch or tone used when pronouncing a word can change its meaning. In tonal languages, different tones can indicate different words or grammatical functions, even if the phonetic pronunciation of the words is otherwise the same.
For example, Mandarin Chinese is a well-known tonal language with four main tones:
High level (mā) – meaning "mother" Rising (má) – meaning "hemp" Falling-rising (mǎ) – meaning "horse" Falling (mà) – meaning "scold" Other examples of tonal languages include Thai, Vietnamese, and many African languages. In contrast, languages like English are considered non-tonal because tone does not typically change the meaning of words.