Another function of tone-change is noun specialization and/or semantic shift.
For an example of specialization, we can take a look at the word 城 [siaŋ22] city/town.
A change in tone to 225 would mean specifically the town of Taicheng (台城), the county seat and largest town in Taishan.
To residents of the town, it would be just the couple of blocks where the town originated.
By the way, 城 is widely used to name county seats in the Pearl River Delta area, i.e. 会城 is the county seat
of 新会 (Xinhui), and 莞城 of 东莞 (Dongguan, now a pop. 5 million+ city sandwiched between
Guangzhou and Shenzhen). 广州 (Guangzhou/Canton) is also known as 省城 [saŋ55 siaŋ22]--
the
provincial city.
鼻 [bi32] is nose, but a change in tone to 鼻 [bi325] would turn it into nasal mucus
-- a case of semantic
shift. Thus a running nose is 流鼻 [liu22 bi325].
Here are some more examples:
|
Normal Tone |
Changed Tone |
Normal Tone |
Changed Tone |
| 烟 [yan] |
33 |
335 |
smoke |
tobacco |
| 袋 [ɔi] |
32 |
325 |
bag, sack |
a pocket |
| 糖 [hɔŋ] |
22 |
225 |
sugar |
candies |
| 头 [həu] |
22 |
225 |
head |
leader |
| 妹 [mɔi] |
55 |
21 |
young girl |
younger sister |
| 月 [ŋut] |
32 |
215 |
month |
the moon |
| 公 [gǝŋ] |
33 |
215 |
old person |
(of animal/insect) a male; (of chess) the King |
| 墨 [mak] |
32 |
215 |
ink |
a mole |
| 山 [san] |
33 |
21 |
mountain, hill |
a burial heap |
| 尺 [tsiak] |
33 |
21 |
measurement unit of one foot |
a ruler |
| 二 [ŋi] |
32 |
215 |
the number two |
(intimate) the second son; (playing cards) a card of rank two |
| 拳 [kun] |
22 |
225 |
fist |
a set or style of Martial Arts |
| 脚 [giak] |
33 |
21 |
feet, leg |
dregs |
| 银 [ŋan] |
22 |
225 |
silver |
money |
| 皮 [pi] |
22 |
225 |
skin |
fur, leather |
| 针 [dzim] |
33 |
215 |
sewing needle |
injection needle |
| 日头 [ŋit hǝu] |
33-21 |
21-215 |
the sun |
day time |
| 鸡笼 [gai lǝŋ] |
33-21 |
33-215 |
chicken cage |
a type of fried dumpling (shaped like a chicken cage) |
| 火头 [fɔ həu] |
55-22 |
55-225 |
source of fire; seeds of trouble |
a cook |