High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! one sandhi is the change of tone that occurs in some languages when different tones come together in a word or phrase. It is a type of sandhi, or fusional change, from the Sanskrit word for "joining". For example, Mandarin Chinese has a sandhi rule whereby a dipping-tone becomes a rising tone when it is followed by another dipping tone. Thus the greeting written n?h?o in pinyin, composed of the dipping-tone words n? "you" and h?o "well", is pronounced more like níh?o. That is, tone sandhi is a phonemic and not just phonetic change in tone.