Modifier Tone Letters

Modifier Tone Letters
RangeU+A700..U+A71F
(32 code points)
PlaneBMP
ScriptsCommon
Symbol setsTone marks
Assigned32 code points
Unused0 reserved code points
Unicode version history
4.1 (2005)23 (+23)
5.0 (2006)27 (+4)
5.1 (2008)32 (+5)
Unicode documentation
Code chart ∣ Web page
Note: [1][2]

Modifier Tone Letters is a Unicode block containing tone markings for Chinese, Chinantec, Africanist, and other phonetic transcriptions. It does not contain the standard IPA tone marks, which are found in Spacing Modifier Letters.

꜀◌ ꜁◌ ꜂◌ ꜃◌ ◌꜄ ◌꜅ ◌꜆ ◌꜇⟩ are used to mark yin and (underlined) yang splits of the ping, shang, qu and ru tones, respectively, in the etymological four-tone analysis of Chinese. The dotted tone letters ⟨꜈ ꜉ ꜊ ꜋ ꜌⟩ are used for the pitch of neutral tones, while the reversed tone letters ⟨꜒ ꜓ ꜔ ꜕ ꜖⟩ and neutral ⟨꜍ ꜎ ꜏ ꜐ ꜑⟩ are used for tone sandhi. ⟨ ꜗ  ꜘ  ꜙ  ꜚ ⟩ are modifier letters used in Ozumacín Chinantec. ⟨ꜛ ꜜ⟩ are the IPA modifier letters for upstep and downstep, while ⟨ꜝ ꜞ ꜟ⟩ are substitutes people used before broad font support of the IPA, and still preferred by some.

  1. ^ "Unicode character database". The Unicode Standard. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  2. ^ "Enumerated Versions of The Unicode Standard". The Unicode Standard. Retrieved 2023-07-26.