Contour tone

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In phonology, a contour tone is a sequence of different tone heights realized on one vowel in tone languages.

Example

In Igbo the word àkàla 'cup' has two vowels with a low tone; the final vowel, however, has a sequence of a low tone and a high tone.

Link

Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics

Reference

Goldsmith 1976. Autosegmental phonology. PhD diss. MIT, Cambridge MA. Distributed by IULC, published by Garland Press, New York, 1979.