User:Kotek20/sandbox

Onsets
The first cell indicates the initial, generally in dots 1 to 4, and the medial in dots 5 and 6. This design exploits restrictions on co-occurrence of initials and medials to fit all the allowable combinations in a single cell.

The medial -i- is represented by dot 5, the medial -u- by dot 6 , and the medial -ü- by both dots 5 and 6. The z c s series is derived from zh ch sh as if they contained a -i- medial; these two series are not distinguished in many Mandarin dialects.

A null/zero initial (a vowel-initial syllable) is indicated with the null consonant.

At least one letter in each place of articulation comes from international use ( f, ti,  l,  k,  xi,  zh), with at least some of the others derived from these (cf.  k h g and  ch sh zh).

Rimes
The second cell represents the rime, generally in the top half of the cell, and the tone, generally in dots 3 and 6.

Tone 1 (mā) is indicated by dot 3, tone 2 (má) by dot 6 , and tone 3 (mǎ) by dots 3 and 6. (In rime -ei, which already contains a dot 3, the dot 3 for tones 1 and 3 is replaced by dot 5 ( or ).) Tone 4 (mà) and neutral/toneless syllables use the basic rime.

A null/zero rime (a syllable ending with medial i u ü) is written with.


 * is the 'zero' rime transcribed as -i after z c s zh ch sh r in pinyin; here it's also used to carry the tone for syllables where the medial is the rime, such as gu or mi. After b p m f, it is equivalent to pinyin -u.
 * is transcribed in pinyin as o after b p m f w and the medial u; otherwise it's e.

The rime er is written as if it were *ra; this is possible because *ra is not a possible syllable in Mandarin. At the end of a word, -r is erhua, as in  huār (花儿). Within a word, hyphenate erhua to avoid confusion with an initial r- in the following syllable.

The exclamation ê is, yo is , and o is , with appropriate modification for tone.