python-pinyin: A Python Library for Converting Chinese Characters to Pinyin

python-pinyin is an open‑source Python library that converts Chinese characters into Pinyin, offering various output styles such as first‑letter, tone numbers, tone marks, Bopomofo, and Wade‑Giles, and supporting heteronym (multiple‑pronunciation) handling.

Typical usage examples include importing the library and calling pinyin() or lazy_pinyin() with different parameters to control style, heteronym mode, neutral‑tone representation, and vowel notation.

<code>from pypinyin import pinyin, lazy_pinyin, Style
pinyin('中心')  # [['zhōng'], ['xīn']]
pinyin('中心', heteronym=True)  # [['zhōng', 'zhòng'], ['xīn']]
pinyin('中心', style=Style.FIRST_LETTER)  # [['z'], ['x']]
pinyin('中心', style=Style.TONE2, heteronym=True)  # [['zho1ng', 'zho4ng'], ['xi1n']]
pinyin('中心', style=Style.TONE3, heteronym=True)  # [['zhong1', 'zhong4'], ['xin1']]
pinyin('中心', style=Style.BOPOMOFO)  # [['ㄓㄨㄥ'], ['ㄒㄧㄣ']]
lazy_pinyin('威妥玛拼音', style=Style.WADEGILES)  # ['wei', "t'o", 'ma', "p'in", 'yin']
lazy_pinyin('中心')  # ['zhong', 'xin']
lazy_pinyin('战略', v_to_u=True)  # ['zhan', 'lüe']
lazy_pinyin('衣裳', style=Style.TONE3, neutral_tone_with_five=True)  # ['yi1', 'shang5']
lazy_pinyin('你好', style=Style.TONE2, tone_sandhi=True)  # ['ni2', 'ha3o']
</code>

By default, the result does not indicate which vowel is a neutral tone; you can enable neutral‑tone marking with neutral_tone_with_five=True to use “5”.

Without tone‑related styles, the library uses v to represent ü ; set v_to_u=True to output the actual ü character.

Characters without a Pinyin mapping are output unchanged; custom handling is described in the documentation.

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