tone language
noun
a language, as Swedish, Chinese, Yoruba, or Serbo-Croatian, in which words that are otherwise phonologically identical are distinguished by having different pitches or pitch contour.
Origin of tone language
First recorded in 1905–10
Words nearby tone language
tone color,
tone colour,
tone control,
tone dialing,
tone down,
tone language,
tone painting,
tone poem,
tone policing,
tone row,
tone up
British Dictionary definitions for tone language
tone language
noun
a language, such as Chinese or certain African languages, in which differences in tone may make differences in meaning