About Taiwanese Hokkien Tone Trainer

Taiwanese Hokkien Tone Trainer coaches the seven Hokkien tones with live pitch feedback: the 7 tones on 21 common syllables, then 12 real two-syllable words graded with real tone sandhi. Your microphone listens, your pitch curve is drawn over the target curve, and one named hint at a time tells you exactly what to fix.

How it works

• Your browser samples the microphone and measures your pitch with autocorrelation, a standard signal-processing method: it finds how often your voice waveform repeats. No model is downloaded, and no audio is sent anywhere.
• Calibrate first. Hokkien tones differ by pitch LEVEL as well as shape. Press Set my voice range and slide from your lowest to your highest comfortable note. The app then measures every utterance against your own range: 1.0 means the top of your range, 0.0 the bottom. Recalibrate any time in Settings; your range is stored only on this device.
• For each syllable, the app compares your pitch contour to the target tone's level and shape: high flat, high falling, low flat, mid falling and short, rising from low, mid flat, or high and short. You are judged on level and shape, not on how high or low your voice is in absolute terms.
• Press Check my tone after saying the syllable. If the contour matches, you score. If not, you get one named hint, such as: Tone 8 is high and short: yours started too low. Start high and cut it off short.
• Hear the target plays the target shape as a gliding tone, placed inside your own calibrated range, so you can hear the shape before you say it. Checked tones play short.
• Tone pairs unlock at 50 points. The app splits your utterance at the gap between syllables and checks each half: the first against its sandhi tone, the second against its citation tone.
• Pitch tracking approximates tones. Background noise, a quiet voice, a creaky voice, or a cold can confuse it. If a native speaker says your tones sound right, trust them over the app.
• Native-speaker review sought: we are seeking review of this app by native Hokkien speakers and Hokkien teachers, in parallel with its release. Review is not a gate: the app is live while review is sought, and corrections will be folded in as they arrive.

The seven tones

• Tone 1, yin level (44): high flat. Example: kun 君, lord.
• Tone 2, rising (53): high falling. Example: kún 滾, to roll.
• Tone 3, yin departing (11): low flat, near the bottom. Example: kùn 棍, stick.
• Tone 4, yin entering (32): mid falling and short, ending in a stop (-p, -t, -k, -h). Example: kut 骨, bone.
• Tone 5, yang level (24): rising from low. Example: kûn 群, group.
• Tone 7, yang departing (33): mid flat. Example: kūn 郡, county.
• Tone 8, yang entering (4): high and short, ending in a stop. Example: ku̍t 滑, slippery.

The Chao numbers (44, 53, 11, 32, 24, 33, 4) are the standard textbook values for Taipei speech, tracing each tone from start to finish on a 1 to 5 scale. Real speakers vary, and other Hokkien dialects differ more: Tainan tone 2 falls less steeply, and Quanzhou tone 1 sits lower. The app accepts a close fit, not an exact one.

In the traditional count there are eight tones, but tone 6 merged with tone 2, so only seven distinct tones remain. The numbers skip 6 on purpose: they are the historical tone classes, and keeping them makes dictionaries and textbooks line up.

The same syllable with a different tone is a different word. That is why tones matter: say the wrong tone and you may say a different word entirely.

Tone sandhi

In connected Hokkien speech, only the last syllable in a phrase keeps its citation tone. Every earlier syllable changes, following the Taipei sandhi rules:

• Tone 1 becomes tone 7 (high flat becomes mid flat).
• Tone 2 becomes tone 1 (high falling becomes high flat).
• Tone 3 becomes tone 2 (low flat becomes high falling).
• Tone 5 becomes tone 3 in Taipei speech (rising becomes low flat). In Tainan speech it becomes tone 7 instead.
• Tone 7 becomes tone 3 (mid flat becomes low flat).
• The checked tones swap for -p, -t, -k finals: tone 4 becomes tone 8, tone 8 becomes tone 4. For -h finals, tone 4 becomes tone 2 and tone 8 becomes tone 3.

The two-syllable words in this app are graded the way they are really said: first syllable in its sandhi tone, last syllable in its citation tone. Each word's lesson names its change, for example: Tâi is tone 5 in isolation, but non-final syllables change: in Taipei speech tone 5 becomes tone 3. The single syllables are graded in citation form, the way you would say them alone or at the end of a phrase.

The confusable pairs

Three pairs trip learners up most. Tone 1 vs tone 7: both flat, one high, one mid. The difference is level alone, which is why calibration matters. Tone 1 vs tone 8: both high, but tone 8 is short and cut off. The difference is length: hold tone 1 for a full beat, clip tone 8 short. Tone 4 vs tone 7: tone 4 falls a little from the middle and stops; tone 7 stays flat in the middle. When your contour sits between two tones, the app says so honestly instead of guessing, and names the difference to aim for.

Learn more

These links open other websites in a new tab. Taiwanese Hokkien Tone Trainer isn't affiliated with any of them and sends them nothing.

Privacy

• Your voice never leaves your device. It is analysed in your browser frame by frame and immediately discarded. Nothing is recorded, uploaded or shared.
• No accounts, ads, cookies, analytics or trackers. The app loads nothing from other websites: the code is served from this site, and a security policy blocks connections anywhere else.
• Stored on your device only: which items you've tried, your points, badges, practice days and settings, your calibrated voice range, and whether you've seen the welcome message, in your browser's local storage. Clear it any time in Settings → Clear progress, or with the Offline proof → Delete all my data button, or by clearing this site's data in your browser.
• Offline copy: after your first visit, your browser keeps a copy of the app so it works offline. Clearing site data removes it.

Disclaimer

This is a home practice tool, not a teacher, therapist or safety device. Everything runs on your device: no video, audio or images are sent anywhere. Feedback is automatic and can be wrong. For real instruction, learn from a qualified Hokkien teacher or a native-speaker community, linked on the Resources page.

Tone values taught here are Taipei citation tones with Taipei sandhi. Other Hokkien dialects differ (Tainan tone 5 becomes tone 7 in sandhi, not tone 3). The app grades single syllables in citation form and two-syllable words with sandhi on the first syllable; it does not grade full sentences, and it does not check grammar, vocabulary, or meaning.

Accessibility

All controls are keyboard operable, the live check announces results to screen readers, and celebrations respect reduced-motion settings. The pitch display is a visual aid only: every result is also given as text, and the target pattern can be heard with Hear the target.

Credits

Taiwanese Hokkien Tone Trainer is built by Toolantern. Pitch detection (autocorrelation), tone classification, voice-range calibration, and the synthetic reference tones are original code written for this app in js/pitch.js. All lesson content is original. Tone values follow the standard Taipei descriptions (Hokkien phonology, Taiwanese Hokkien).