Re: tonal languages

John writes:

>Douglas Koller, Latin & French scripsit:
>
>>  This is interesting. When I've heard natives talk about their own
>>  dialect, they usually inflate the number of tones (e.g.: Cantonese
>>  speakers will say they have 10+ tones;
>
>Well, you can make a case for 11 tonemes in Cantonese: a yin and a
>yang tone for
>each open syllable, 3 for closed syllables, and two "changed" tones
>which (unlike ordinary tones) are morphemes of a sort.
>At the etic level, though, there are only 6-7.
I'll buy this. At the etic level (which is where I hang), I opt for six.