Proper linguistic term for the 'base' (untoned) pronunciation?

[roddy]

Was just thinking about this, prompted by the Tones over characters discussion. Is there a term in linguistics for the 'tone-free' pronunciation of a word or syllable in a tonal language. On here people use the 'base pronunciation' - ie, "I've learned all the HSK 1 words, but quite often I forget the tone. I always get the base pronunciation right though"

 

This is slightly unsatisfactory as it continues the idea that the tone is somehow not basic, when it is. But is there a correct adjective. Atonal? Tone-free? Is this a term that might be used in linguistics, perhaps in a sentence like "To test the importance of tone in comprehension of fluent speech, we exposed native speakers to various _______ sentences".  I did some in-depth research by scanning the Wiki article, but to no avail. I did learn the following facts though:

•  It is now widely held that Old Chinese did not have phonemically contrastive tone.[citation needed] 
• Very often, tone arises as an effect of the loss or merger of consonants. (Such trace effects of disappeared tones or other sounds have been nicknamed Cheshirisation, after the lingering smile of the disappearing Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland.)

[陳德聰]

No word comes to mind as I lie in bed half asleep, but I have read and referred to the makeup of the word that is not tone as its “segmental composition” as tone is a “suprasegmental feature,” or an “autosegmental feature,” and I might also call a set of segments a “string.”

 

That being said, “I am able to pronounce the segmental strings of most words accurately, but not their tone” does not really roll off the tongue.

[hoshinoumi]

An amazing linguist (and university professor of mine) calls them in Spanish "sílabas átonas" (atonic syllables). 

Quote in Spanish and rough translation:

Quote

El tono forma una unidad con la sílaba, es decir, es parte consustancial de ella, aunque existen sílabas átonas que pierden su tono en una combinación determinada con otras sílabas. Taken from Juan José Ciruela Alférez, chapter 2 of the book China, pasado y presente de una gran civilización.

The tone forms one unit with the syllable, a consubstantial part of it, although there are atonic syllables that lose their tone in specific combinations with other syllables.

[Angelina]

One concept used in linguistics that comes to my mind right now is the concept of markedness.  

 

When someone who is trying to learn Chinese does not use the right tone of a syllable, this act makes the syllable marked, which might require a high degree of listening effort from a native speaker of Chinese participating in this conversation. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markedness

[lechuan]

I have seen the terms "segmental" (for consonants/vowels) and "suprasegmental" (for tone).

 

There's an interesting study here that compares the relative mutability of tones in Mandarin to the relative mutability of vowel sounds in European languages that uses these terms.