When human beings speak, the tones they use are confined to a fixed range in a manner similar to the Octave in music. An Octave defines a range of musical notes in a scale. The sound produced when people sing would correspond with the musical notes within the Octave. When we look at a musical note as identified in an Octave, we would know how to produce (sing) the tune.

There are six tones in all and they are therefore referred to as “the Hexatave” in speech. We should identify these tones and then arrange them from high to low. We should then learn a specimen of each of these tones like a jingle. Any tone we want to use is then fit into this jingle. A student can then learn to pronounce any word in any language, e.g. Cantonese in the correct tone. This knowledge is immensely helpful to those who need to learn the so-called “tonal languages”.

Mr. Edward P.H. Woo, director of the Asia International Open University Center for Research on Linguistic (Tonal) Studies, has discovered that there is also a range to embrace the tones used in speech. Mr. Woo calls this range “the Hexatave”. His research has uncovered that there is a range of tones used in speech similar to musical octaves which are used in spoken language around the world.

For further information, see the publication and the video to simplify the methodology and learning of the spoken languages of the world:

(1)    The Theory of the Hexatave [Click to download the text]

(2)    The Video explaining the Theory of the Hexatave [Click to download the video]