noun
(phonology) dark level tone, a tone in various modern Chinese varieties, generally corresponding to the level tone and voiceless onset in Middle Chinese, e.g. tone 1 (/˥/) in Standard Mandarin (marked in Hanyu Pinyin with a macron [ ¯ ] and usually left unmarked in bopomofo), tone 1 (/˥/) in Guangzhou Cantonese, tone 1 (/˦/) in Meixian Hakka, tone 1 (/˦/) in Xiamen/Taiwanese Hokkien (unmarked in Pe̍h-ōe-jī)
When a character to be read with a rising tone is preceded by a character that is not read with a rising tone (dark level tone, light level tone, or departing tone), the rising tone tonal value changes from 214 into a half rising tone tonal value of 21.
When a character to be read with a rising tone is preceded by a character that would be read with dark level tone, light level tone, departing tone, or neutral tone, that is to say, whenever such a character is found before any character that is not read with rising tone, the normally-expected rise in tone at the tail-end of the rising tone from 1 to 4 in the last half is eliminated. The tonal value changes from 214 into a half rising tone tonal value of 2 11. This is expressed in written form as a change from 214 to 211.