Breaking Options¶

-h | --help

Print help information with a short explanation of options to standard output.

-v | --version

Print version information to standard output.

Filespec Options¶

filespec arguments are file names or the minus sign - for standard input. As usual, the argument -- can be used in order to let all following arguments mean file names, even if the names begin with a minus character -.

Syllables¶

In Pinyin, each syllable consists of 1 to 6 European-like letters, the normal ASCII characters in upper and lower case, the only unusual characters are the U dieresis (umlaut) in both cases, i.e. [a-zA-ZüÜ].

In the groff gpinyin input, all ASCII letters are written as usual. But the u/U dieresis can be written as either as \['u] or ue in lower case or \['U], Ue, UE in upper case.

Tones¶

In the source file, these tones are written by adding a number 0 to 5 after the syllable name.

In each writing, the tone numbers 1 to 4 are transformed into accents above vowels.

The 1st tone is the horizontal macron \[a-] ¯ , similar to a minus or sub character, but on top of the vowel. In each source file, write the 1st tone as syllable1.

The 2nd tone is the accute accent \[aa] ´. In each source file, write the 2nd tone as syllable2.

The 3rd tone is the caron sign, \[ah] ˇ , which looks a bit like a small v above the vowel. In each source file, write the 3rd tone as syllable3.

The 4th tone is the grave accent \[ga] `. In each source file, write the 4th tone as syllable4.

The 5th tone is the no-tone. The numbers 0 and 5 can be used for the (no-tone). The no-tone number can be omitted, when the syllable is the end of some word. But within a word of syllables, one of the no-tone numbers 0 or 5 must be written.