Editing Pinyin (section)

==Tones==
[[File:Pinyin Tone Chart.svg|right|thumb|upright=0.6|Relative pitch changes of the four tones]]
The pinyin system also uses four [[diacritic]]s to mark the [[tones of Mandarin]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Qiuying |last2=Andrews |first2=Jean F. |year=2021 |title=Chinese Pinyin: Overview, History and Use in Language Learning for Young Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students in China |journal=American Annals of the Deaf |volume=166 |issue=4 |pages=446–461 |doi=10.1353/aad.2021.0038 |issn=1543-0375 |pmid=35185033 |s2cid=247010548}}</ref> In the pinyin system, four main tones of Mandarin are shown by diacritics: ā, á, ǎ, and à.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chang |first=Yufen |date=2018-10-09 |title=How pinyin tone formats and character orthography influence Chinese learners' tone acquisition |journal=Chinese as a Second Language Research |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=195–219 |doi=10.1515/caslar-2018-0008 |issn=2193-2263 |s2cid=57998920}}</ref> There is no symbol or diacritic for the neutral tone: a. The diacritic is placed over the letter that represents the [[syllable nucleus]], unless that letter is missing. Tones are used in Hanyu Pinyin symbols, and they do not appear in Chinese characters.

Tones are written on the finals of Chinese pinyin. If the tone mark is written over an ''i'', then it replaces the tittle, as in {{tlit|zh|yī}}.
# The first tone (flat or high-level tone) is represented by a [[Macron (diacritic)|macron]] {{angbr|ˉ}} added to the pinyin vowel:
#: ā ē ê̄ ī ō ū ǖ Ā Ē Ê̄ Ī Ō Ū Ǖ
# The second tone (rising or high-rising tone) is denoted by an [[acute accent]] {{angbr|ˊ}}:
#: á é ế í ó ú ǘ Á É Ế Í Ó Ú Ǘ
# The third tone (falling-rising or low tone) is marked by a [[caron]] {{angbr|ˇ}}:
#: ǎ ě ê̌ ǐ ǒ ǔ ǚ Ǎ Ě Ê̌ Ǐ Ǒ Ǔ Ǚ
# The fourth tone (falling or high-falling tone) is represented by a [[grave accent]] {{angbr|ˋ}}:
#: à è ề ì ò ù ǜ À È Ề Ì Ò Ù Ǜ
# The fifth tone (neutral tone) is represented by a normal vowel without any accent mark:
#: a e ê i o u ü A E Ê I O U Ü
In dictionaries, neutral tone may be indicated by a dot preceding the syllable—e.g. {{tlit|zh|·ma}}. When a neutral tone syllable has an alternative pronunciation in another tone, a combination of tone marks may be used: {{zhp|p=zhī·dào|c=知道}} may be pronounced either {{zhp|p=zhīdào}} or {{zhp|p=zhīdao}}.{{sfnp|GB/T 16159|2012|at=§7.3}}

=== Numbers ===
{{Further|Tone number}}
Before the advent of computers, many typewriter fonts did not contain vowels with [[Macron (diacritic)|macron]] or [[caron]] diacritics. Tones were thus represented by placing a [[tone number]] at the end of individual syllables. For example, {{tlit|zh|tóng}} is written {{tlit|zh|tong<sup>2</sup>}}. Each tone can be denoted with its numeral the order listed above. The neutral tone can either be denoted with no numeral, with 0, or with 5.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
! scope="col" | Tone !! scope="col" | Examples !! scope="col" | [[Help:IPA|IPA]]
|-
! scope="row" | 1
| {{blist|list_style=list-style-type:circle|{{tlit|zh|i=n|mā}}{{pad|0.18em}}{{small|([[Macron (diacritic)|macron]])}} | {{tlit|zh|i=n|ma<sup>1</sup>}} }} || {{IPA|ma˥}}
|-
! scope="row" | 2
| {{blist|list_style=list-style-type:circle|{{tlit|zh|i=n|má}}{{pad|0.18em}}{{small|([[acute accent]])}} | ma<sup>2</sup>}} || {{IPA|ma˧˥}}
|-
! scope="row" | 3
| {{blist|list_style=list-style-type:circle|{{tlit|zh|i=n|mǎ}}{{pad|0.18em}}{{small|([[caron]])}} | {{tlit|zh|i=n|ma<sup>3</sup>}} }} || {{IPA|ma˨˩˦}}
|-
! scope="row" | 4
| {{blist|list_style=list-style-type:circle|{{tlit|zh|i=n|mà}}{{pad|0.18em}}{{small|([[grave accent]])}} | {{tlit|zh|i=n|ma<sup>4</sup>}} }} || {{IPA|ma˥˩}}
|-
! scope="row" | [[Neutral tone|Neutral]]
| {{blist|list_style=list-style-type:circle|{{tlit|zh|i=n|ma}} | {{tlit|zh|i=n|·ma}}{{pad|0.18em}}{{small|([[middle dot]])}} | {{tlit|zh|i=n|ma<sup>0</sup>}} | {{tlit|zh|i=n|ma<sup>5</sup>}} }}
| {{IPA|ma}}
|}

=== Placement and omission ===
Briefly, tone marks should always be placed in the order {{tlit|zh|a, e, o, i, u, ü}}, with the only exception being {{tlit|zh|iu}} where the tone mark is placed on the second vowel instead. Pinyin tone marks appear primarily above the syllable nucleus—e.g. as in {{tlit|zh|kuài}}, where ''k'' is the initial, ''u'' the medial, ''a'' the nucleus, and ''i'' is the coda. There is an exception for syllabic nasals like {{IPA|/m/}}, where the nucleus of the syllable is a consonant: there, the diacritic will be carried by a written dummy vowel.

When the nucleus is {{IPAslink|ə}} (written ''e'' or ''o''), and there is both a medial and a coda, the nucleus may be dropped from writing. In this case, when the coda is a consonant ''n'' or ''ng'', the only vowel left is the medial ''i, u'', or ''ü'', and so this takes the diacritic. However, when the coda is a vowel, it is the coda rather than the medial which takes the diacritic in the absence of a written nucleus. This occurs with syllables ending in {{tlit|zh|-ui}} (from {{tlit|zh|wei}}: {{tlit|zh|wèi}} → {{tlit|zh|-uì}}) and in {{tlit|zh|-iu}} (from {{tlit|zh|you}}: {{tlit|zh|yòu}} → {{tlit|zh|-iù}}). That is, in the absence of a written nucleus the finals have priority for receiving the tone marker, as long as they are vowels; if not, the medial takes the diacritic.

An algorithm to find the correct vowel letter (when there is more than one) is as follows:
# If there is an ''a'' or an ''e'', it will take the tone mark
# In the combination {{tlit|zh|ou}}, then the ''o'' takes the tone mark
# Otherwise, the second vowel takes the tone mark

Worded differently,
# If there is an ''a, e'', or ''o'', it will take the tone mark; in the case of {{tlit|zh|ao}}, the mark goes on the ''a''
# Otherwise, the vowels are {{tlit|zh|-iu}} or {{tlit|zh|-ui}}, in which case the second vowel takes the tone mark

The above can be summarized as the following table. The vowel letter taking the tone mark is indicated by the fourth-tone mark.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;border:none"
|+ {{nwr|Placement of the pinyin tone mark}}
! style="background:none;border-style:none" | 
! style="min-width:3em" scope="col" | -a
! style="min-width:3em" scope="col" | -e
! style="min-width:3em" scope="col" | -o
! style="min-width:3em" scope="col" | -i
! style="min-width:3em" scope="col" | -u
|-
! style="min-width:3em" scope="row" | a-
| colspan="2" rowspan="3" class="table-na" style="background-color:#ececec;border-style:none solid none none" | || {{tlit|zh|i=n|ào}}
| {{tlit|zh|i=n|ài}} 
| class="table-na" style="background-color:#ececec;border-style:none solid none none" |
|-
! style="min-width:3em" scope="row" | e-
| rowspan="2" class="table-na" style="background-color:#ececec;border-style:none solid none none" |
| colspan="2" class="table-na" style="background-color:#ececec;border-style:none solid none none"|
|-
! style="min-width:3em" scope="row" | o-
|èi
| {{tlit|zh|i=n|òu}}
|-
! style="min-width:3em" scope="row" | i-
| {{tlit|zh|i=n|ià}}, {{tlit|zh|i=n|iào}}|| {{tlit|zh|i=n|iè}} || {{tlit|zh|i=n|iò}} || class="table-na" style="background-color:#ececec;border-style:none" | || {{tlit|zh|i=n|iù}}
|-
! style="min-width:3em" scope="row" | u-
| {{tlit|zh|i=n|uà}}, {{tlit|zh|i=n|uài}} || {{tlit|zh|i=n|uè}} || {{tlit|zh|i=n|uò}}|| {{tlit|zh|i=n|uì}} 
| class="table-na" style="background-color:#ececec;border-style:none solid none none" | 
|-
! style="min-width:3em" scope="row" | ü-
| {{tlit|zh|i=n|(üà)}} || {{tlit|zh|i=n|üè}}
| colspan="3" |
|}

=== Tone sandhi ===
[[Tone sandhi]] is not ordinarily reflected in pinyin spelling.

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