Chinese Pinyin tones usually refer to the tones of Mandarin Chinese, namely: Yinping (first tone), represented by "ˉ," as in lā; Yangping (second tone), represented by "ˊ," as in lá; Shangsheng (third tone), represented by "ˇ," as in lǎ; Qusheng (fourth tone), represented by "ˋ," as in là.
In the "Chinese Pinyin Scheme" approved in 1957-1958, the tone symbols used were: Yinping (ˉ), Yangping (ˊ), Shangsheng (ˇ), Qusheng (ˋ), and Qingsheng (no tone mark). This method resolved the issue of distinguishing between different tone characters. For example, 妈 mā (Yinping), 麻 má (Yangping), 马 mǎ (Shangsheng), 骂 mà (Qusheng), 吗 mɑ (Qingsheng, no tone mark).
Chinese Pinyin Tone Marking
is applied to the six simple vowels: ā, o, e, i, u, ü. The six vowels are arranged in order, with "a" as the first (marked on ā), then "o" and "e" as the second and third (marked on o and e), followed by "i," "u," and "ü" as the fourth, fifth, and sixth. In Pinyin, if there is no "a," the tone mark is placed on "o" or "e." For "i" and "u," the tone marks are placed afterward. The diacritical dots on "i" and "ü" are removed (ī, í, ǐ, ì) when they are marked with tone marks. For "ü" when the initial consonants are j, q, x, or y, the two dots are removed. For overall recognition syllables, the tone marks on "ü" also require the dots to be removed.
The tone symbols are: Yinping: - Yangping: / Shangsheng: ∨ Qusheng: ﹨