Pinyin orthography changed last year. Rule 7.3 of GB/T 16159-2012
<http://www.lshk.org/sites/default/files/zhengcifa_0.pdf> stipulates
that a preceding dot (probably U+00B7 or U+2022) be used to indicate
neutral tone in dictionaries, as had been common practice among many
dictionary makers anyway. When there is alternation between neutral and
another tone two tone marks may be used simultaneously, as in /zhī·dào/
(知道).
Charlie ☘
On 14 November 2013 Eric Muller wrote:
Is it correct that:
- in bopomofo, the neutral (or light) tone is represented by U+02D9 ˙
DOT ABOVE, and in the text representation, that character follows the
bopomofo characters of the syllable (just like all the other
characters for tones)
- in pinyin, the neutral tone is typically not marked, but it may be
marked. When that's the case, U+02D9 ˙ DOT ABOVE is used.
When U+02D9 is used in pinyin, where it is in the character sequence?
before the syllable to which it applies (where it is displayed) or
after (like in bopomofo)?
When U+02D9 is used in bopomofo, it needs to be displayed before the
syllable. Is the display position simply "before the nearest preceding
character from the set {U+3105 ㄅ BOPOMOFO LETTER B ... U+3119 ㄙ
BOPOMOFO LETTER S, U+31A0 ㆠ BOPOMOFO LETTER BU ... U+31A3 ㆣ BOPOMOFO
LETTER GU}"?
Thanks,
Eric.
