Chinese keyboard layout

Chinese is considered one of the most difficult languages ​​in the world. This is caused by a wide variety of hieroglyphs and dialects, which differ in each province. Chinese language has about 40 thousand hieroglyphs. This makes compiling a universal keyboard difficult. However, there are ways to facilitate the process of writing text in Chinese.

What is the peculiarity of the Chinese keyboard

Let's figure out what the Chinese keyboard looks like. Chinese characters are based on graphemes (mini-hieroglyphs), of which there are only 250 pieces. The keyboard is based on them. To increase the sound (phonetic) capacity, the keys on the Chinese input device do not contain 2-3 functions, but 8-9 each. Consequently, Each button represents 8 graphemes, which increases the input possibilities for the device.

IMPORTANT! The biggest difficulty of writing is that some hieroglyphs can consist of 3-4 graphemes.

That is why Inevitably there are characters that will be typed with the same combination of buttons, but at the same time have a completely different meaning. To avoid this, a sequence of 2 numbers was invented, one of which is used to denote the number of the end line, the other to represent a group of characters.

Groups of characters

There are 4 groups in total.

  • Basic. It uses only 5 features and 25 characters, which are the most frequently used.
  • The second group consists of hieroglyphs, with the image of which there is a gap between the graphemes. For example, the hieroglyph consists of two components: 艹 and 田
  • The third group consists of characters including connected graphemes.
  • Hieroglyphs whose graphemes overlap or intersect.

The last two groups are the most difficult to enter, as their combinations are extremely numerous. Therefore, choosing among all the options slows down the input speed.

Each of the most common graphemes has its own key; therefore, the process of writing basic symbols consists of a simultaneous combination of these graphemes.

REFERENCE! Initially, a system of 25 graphemes was created for a typewriter in 1946. However, this device did not receive widespread use.

This happened because of the high price, which did not allow to put such a machine into mass production. The device cost more than 12 thousand dollars.

The layout of the Chinese keyboard on the computer

Unlike the European type of keyboard, There are no function keys on the Chinese version (F1 - F12). These buttons are used to switch registers. This is done to increase the capacity of characters on devices limited in size.

How to print in Chinese

There are two ways to print in Chinese: graphic and phonetic.

Graphic way

The method is to enter text through graphemes. This requires switch 7-8 times registers for a particular character. This process is very time consuming and requires great concentration and attention. During the exploitation of the device, manufacturers also noticed that there are 24 frequently used hieroglyphs. therefore The keyboard has a separate function for entering common characters.

Structural input method provides the highest input speed. However, the process of learning to enter information in this way is rather difficult because of the many combinations and registers.

Phonetic way

Phonetic input much easier than graphical and requires knowledge of transcription. When writing text not a hieroglyph appears, but its transcription. therefore to form a new text, the user needs to print not the symbol itself, but its pronunciation.

In order to facilitate the printing process, a special system was created - Pinyin. This system, like the famous T9, is also automatically selects the right word or sentencebut by transcription. Having entered the necessary word, the automated program itself will select the list of suitable hieroglyphs. And the user will only have to choose the right one.

It is the phonetic input used in the Windows system when entering text from a conventional keyboard.. This makes it easier to work in Chinese. And allows you not to purchase an additional keyboard to type in this language.

REFERENCE! There are also keyboards with a thousand buttons. They are used to manually set the necessary hieroglyphs.

However, these devices are not widely used, since their production is very expensive, and the functionality is limited.

Watch the video: How to type in Chinese (March 2024).

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