Tones in Naxi

Naxi, being a tonal language, has four main tones.

1) the mid level tone - pa˧ (33)

2) the high level tone (similar to the first tone in mandarin) - pa˥ (55)

3) the low rising tone (similar to the second tone in mandarin) - pa˩˧ (24)

4) the falling tone (similar to the fourth tone in mandarin) - pa˧˩ (21)

Alexis Michaud, of the University of Paris, has done a lot of work on tones in Naxi and you can visit his homepage here, from which you can find links to some of his articles available to download. These treat the subject in a lot more depth than I could ever hope to.

Spring.

Although it's been Spring for quite a while; I remember reading in my pictorial guide to the Book of Changes (图解易经 - I know, I know...) that Spring was a season for getting up early and going to bed late. Well, at least I'm halfway there.

The Dongba character for spring is a 会意字 - an ideogrammic compound - consisting of sky and wind. Because of course, Spring is windy in these parts.
Pronunciation: ɳy˧˩ - the tone diacritic here - hopefully - means that it's a low falling tone, much like the fourth tone in mandarin. Have a listen - with Mr Li's dog barking in the background (click the IPA).