This template renders a pitch contour in the numerical tone notation of Yuen Ren Chao as an IPA tone letter.
The template takes one positional parameter: {{Chinese tone letter|contour}}
, where the pitch contour is specified as a string of up to three numbers in the range 1 to 5 (lowest to highest).
This is the convention for Chinese and other Asian languages; pitch numbers follow different conventions for African and Mesoamerican languages.
For example, the four tones of Standard Chinese may be rendered as:
{{Chinese tone letter|55}}
→ ˥{{Chinese tone letter|35}}
→ ˧˥{{Chinese tone letter|214}}
→ ˨˩˦{{Chinese tone letter|51}}
→ ˥˩