Yes, it has. Cantonese has 9 tones. I can't understand what your meaning of "I'm not hearing a falling then rising tone" is. Could you give me some sample?

i'm learning cantonese as well, and from all my friends, my teacher, and my text book there is no mention of a falling and rising tone in cantonese, but i a not cantonese so can't tell you for sure. Just what my teacher and book say :-)

http://sites.google.com/site/cantonese8/home Check out "Cantonese tone" by HKPU and there's an English manual. Cantonese has SIX tones. Traditionally, Chinese scholars put syllables that end with p, t or k into a category called "entering tone",入聲 which then further split into tone7, tone 8 and tone 9. Why "entering tone"? It is because when you pronounce a syllable that ends with either p, t or k, you will feel a stream of air flowing back to your mouth (like when you say "yup" in English). In modern linguistic explanation, these "entering" tone does NOT affect the tone contour and just shorten the pronunciation time of a syllable since the vowel is killed. This is like the difference between "mat" and "mad" in English. Tone 4 in Cantonese is NOT the same as tone 3 in Mandarin. Please refer to the source I posted. Tone 4 in HK Cantonese is a level tone with a very low pitch level. The pitch is so low that one's voice may become creaky. This person's voice becomes creaky when she pronounces "mòh", which is tone 4. 有錢駛得鬼推磨 [yáuh chín sái dāk gwái tēui mòh] http://www.forvo.com/word/%E6%9C%89%E9%8C%A2%E9%A7%9B%E5%BE%97%E9%AC%BC%E6%8E%A8%E7%A3%A8/

4rd tone in cantonese =3rd tone in mandarine, for example: 人 jan4 ，焚 fan4，陈 can4，......