This chapter reviews studies on contextual tonal variation in Chinese languages, often referred to as ‘tonal coarticulation’ in the literature. We start by explaining why the term ‘contextual variation’ is preferred to ‘coarticulation’ for tones, before introducing different types of contextual variation observed in Chinese languages. The following processes are covered: assimilatory vs. dissimilatory carryover effects, anticipatory effects, microprosodic effects, and pre-planning effects. Next, three debated issues in Chinese linguistics related to contextual variation are discussed. First, are dynamic tones (e.g., rise, fall) underlyingly dynamic or made up of sequences of static tones (e.g., Low-High)? Second, are tones hosted in the rhyme or across an entire syllable? Third, does the Mandarin neutral tone have an underlying target or is it unspecified? Different views on these issues are presented with suggestions on how some of them may be tested and falsified.

This chapter surveys issues related to the production of tone in the world’s languages. Here the term ‘tone’ refers to the localised (within-syllable) use of fundamental frequency that contrasts lexical meanings (thus excluding pitch accent and stress languages). A comprehensive review of tonal phonetics is presented covering the acoustic correlates of tone, contextual tonal variation, methods used in tone production research, as well as recent research topics in tonal phonetics. We offer suggestions for teaching and learning of tone as a phonetics topic and the chapter concludes with suggestions for future directions for tone production research.