A Comprehensive Guide to Typing Chinese from an English Keyboard
Typing Chinese from an English keyboard is a mystery for a lot of Western folks.
Basically, all keyboards are in English. Usually, people understand how people from other alphabetical languages type with the keyboard. Chinese is a logo-syllabary, Chinese words are not built by alphabets.
So people usually don't understand how people type Chinese from an English keyboard.
In this article, you can see 3 major approaches to input Chinese in the computer. I am sure that some of you will get mind-blown.
This is Antlerium PotatoNews, a series focusing on the daily lives of ordinary people, including everyday objects. Today we have a follow-up on the keyboard language issue, ways of typing Chinese from an English keyboard.
Method 1: Pinyin
The pinyin input method is the most mainstream method in China to input Chinese characters into a computer. This method is widely used in mainland China.
The concept is simple. All Chinese characters have a pronunciation. In Mainland China, the Putonghua (Mandarin) pronunciation is represented by a string of Latin alphabets. This system is called "Pinyin"(拼音).
Pinyin uses Latin alphabet, so anyone with an English keyboard can type it out.
Simply recalling how a character is pronounced is enough to retrieve its pinyin. Therefore, the pinyin input method is the easiest method to learn, especially for people who primarily speak Mandarin.
Origin of pinyin
In ancient times, Chinese pronunciations were recorded with a method called Fanqie(反切), people retrieve the consonant of the first character and the vowel of the second character and combine them.
However, there are 2 obvious limitations:
- Different Chinese dialects have their own ways of pronouncing a character.
- Even in one dialect, a Chinese character can have multiple pronunciations.
This traditional method started to be ridiculed in the 19th Century. Authorities created a commission to invent a new pronunciation system, and in 1913, Zhuyin(注音) was invented.
Zhuyin is basically pinyin but instead of the Latin alphabet, it uses weird symbols. This is the first system that clearly notes a word's consonant, vowel and tone.
When CCP administration began, Zhuyin was finally dropped and replaced by Latinized Pinyin.
How to use pinyin input method
- Think of the pronunciation of the character.
- Type out the pinyin with the keyboard.
- From the list of characters sharing the same sound, choose the one you need
Method 2: Stroke count
Stroke count method was a common input method when phones still had buttons. Nowadays, it is very rare because it is hard for people to type fast.
Every Chinese character has a strict stroke order. When you memorize the way to write a character, you can use this method to type Chinese from an English keyboard.
Mechanism of stroke count method
Basically, this input method only requires 6 buttons. All strokes for Chinese writing are classified into five basic types: horizontal (一), vertical (丨), left (丿), dot (丶) and fold (フ). Repurpose key 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 with "一", "丨", "丿", "丶", "フ", and key 6 is for versatile purpose.
| 一 1 | 丨 2 | 丿 3 |
| 丶 4 | フ 5 | * 6 |
7 | 8 | 9 |
Suppose you are typing "正". Its stroke order is "一丨一丨一". Therefore you need to type "12121".
How to use stroke count method
- Rethink how to write the character.
- Think about which of the five basic types each stroke fits into.
- Type out the number according to the stroke order.
- From the list of characters sharing the same starting stroke order, choose the one you need.
Method 3: Cangjie
Cangjie input method is the most common method in Hong Kong. When you go to Hong Kong, most of the people you met probably use this to type Chinese from an English keyboard.
Cangjie input method is the most complicated method on this list. Since it is the earliest way for typing Chinese from an English keyboard, even though it is hard to learn it is still widely used.
For people who cannot speak Mandarin or primarily speak Mandarin, Cangjie input method is the fastest method on the list. It is be even faster with Simplified Cangjie input method.
Mechanism of Cangjie input method
Cangjie input method uses up all alphabets on the keyboard. Characters are broken down into several shapes, and these shapes are classified into 24 categories. Any shapes that cannot match these 24 categories will be classified into "X".
This table shows how the shapes are classified.
We only use 1 - 5 letters to enter one Chinese character. If we are using Simplified Cangjie, we shrink it to 2 letters, but in return, we must choose a character from a very very long list.
It is too hard to explain its meta to a person who don't know Chinese, so I will skip this.
How to use Cangjie input method
- Familiarize the table above.
- Familiarize the coding order for all kinds of character structures.
- Type the letters in order.
- Choose the character on the list. (If the code only matches one character, there is no list)
All these methods are free to use
Anyone can use these input methods to type Chinese from an English keyboard. These methods are free to use.
These are the ways of typing Chinese from an English keyboard. To learn more about everyday objects or other topics related to our ordinary life, make sure to follow PotatoNews. We will also post some cliffsnotes on our socials, make sure to follow them.
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