The chief purposes of this book are the illustration of an analytical approach to tone languages, a methodology based upon recent linguistic advance, and the presentation of firsthand data on Mixteco and Mazateco, languages which represent two very different structural arrangements of linguistic tone. Part 1 describes some of the types of languages that exist, along with difficulties involved in their analysis. The second part presents the steps involved in determining the number and kinds of tonemes in a language and discusses how the procedures in modern phonemic theory must be modified for efficient tonal analysis. Part 3 concerns the presentation of a methodology for the discovery of tonal interplay, especially in languages with level tonemes, and the outlining of Mixteco and Mazateco. A bibliography is included. (Author/VM)