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A pitch drawn against a wall.
Also known as: Tone letters, Tone contour letters
The phonetic notation writing tone as a line drawn against a vertical reference bar.
Writes the pitch contour of a tone as a line against a five-level reference bar.
Contexts: Language and transcription
Records a shape rather than a value, so a rising tone in one language and a rising tone in another are written alike without claiming they are the same pitch — the notation is deliberately relative.
Contexts: Language and transcription
Devised by Yuen Ren Chao and adopted into the International Phonetic Alphabet, which makes it one of very few notational inventions attributable to one linguist and in universal use.
Contexts: Language and transcription
A vertical reference bar with a line attached to its left, the line's height and slope tracing the pitch contour across five levels.