JPH04295914A - I-language character input device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain the I-language character input device which enables character input through less key operation and has a small number of keys as to an I-language character input device for the I-language which is a language of a minority race of the People's Republic of China. CONSTITUTION:On a keyboard, keys for inputting the consonants of the I- language and keys for inputting rtythms consisting of the vowels and voice of the I-language in combination are assigned to the same input key's and a mode for inputting the consonants and a mode for inputting the rtythms are provided and switched for each key stroke; and I-language characters are generated by combining the input of the consonants and the input of the rtythms.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a character input device for the Yi language, which is one of the ethnic minority languages of the People's Republic of China.

0002

[Prior Art] Yi is the language of an ethnic minority living in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China (mainly Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guizhou provinces). There are various dialects of the Yi language, but in 1980, the Chinese State Council established the ``Standard Yi Language,'' which is a standardized Yi language.

[0003] This "normative Yi language" (simply referred to as "I language") will be explained below. Each letter in the Yi language corresponds to one syllable, and each syllable can be divided into consonants, vowels, and intonation.

[0004] The Yi language has 43 types of consonants, 10 types of vowels,
There are four types of tones. The consonants, vowels, and tones of the Yi language are listed in alphabetical order in the table below.

[0005]

[Table 1]

[0006]

[Table 2]

[0007]

[Table 3] Figure 4 shows the correspondence between the alphabetical representations of consonants, vowels, and tones and the letter I.

[0008] The alphabet in the table above is used when studying the I language and the I character, and is standardized, but this alphabet is not used for general sentences written in the I language, but the I character is used. do. I characters, like Japanese kana, are characters that represent syllables. In the case of Japanese kana, syllables can be broken down into consonants and vowels. When breaking down Japanese syllables into consonants and vowels, there is no way to express the consonants and vowels themselves, so they are sometimes expressed using Roman letters. For example, the syllable "ka" can be broken down into the consonant "K" and the vowel "A", but there is no kana corresponding to the consonant "K". Additionally, Roman characters are generally not used in Japanese texts. The alphabetical notation shown in the table above was created for the same reason.

Note that while there are 1102 types of syllables in the standard I language, there are only 819 types of basic I characters that represent the standard I language. This is because syllables whose tone is in the middle tone are written by adding the symbols shown in Table 3 to the basic A character representing the next higher tone.

[0010] When realizing such an input device for I, if a key is assigned to each I character on the keyboard,
The number of keys ends up being 819. Although it is possible to reduce the number of keys to a fraction by using the shift key, hundreds of keys are still required, and it is extremely difficult to remember the key layout, which is still not practical.

[0011] Therefore, a method of inputting using alphabets, similar to Roman alphabet input in Japanese character input, can be considered. This is practical because it can be input using a general alphabetic keyboard, but in order to input the letters alphabetically, it is necessary to press up to five keys for one character (one syllable). This is a case where consonants require two keystrokes, vowels require two keystrokes, and tone requires one keystroke.

0012

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] As mentioned above, conventional input devices for Japanese have the problem of inefficiency when creating sentences because the number of keystrokes increases. .

[0013] An object of the present invention is to realize a character input device for the Japanese language that can input characters in the Japanese language with a small number of keystrokes and that has a small number of keys.

[0014]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the Yi character input device of the present invention accesses the character conversion dictionary 30 based on the information of multiple keystroke inputs on the keyboard 1, and inputs the corresponding characters. This is an Yi language character input device that outputs a code, and the keyboard 1 has keys for inputting the consonants of Yi language letters, and a rhyme that is a combination of the vowels and tone of the Yi language characters. a consonant input mode that generates an intermediate code corresponding to a consonant when the input key 11 is pressed, and a cadence input mode that generates an intermediate code corresponding to a cadence when the input key 11 is pressed. The character conversion dictionary 30 is accessed using information combining the consonant intermediate code and the tone intermediate code. It is configured to do so.

[0015]

[Operation] That is, the I-language character input device of the present invention divides the syllables of the I-language into consonants and tones, which are a combination of vowels and tones, and inputs them by pressing two keys.

In the Yi language, there are 43 types of consonants, and if information indicating the absence of consonants is added to this number, the number becomes 44 types. In addition, there are 40 types of tones (the breakdown will be explained later), which is a combination of 10 types of vowels and 4 types of tones, so if the consonant input key and the vowel and tone input keys are the same,
Input can be made using at most 44 keys. Of course, by combining this with a shift key, the number of keys can be further reduced.

Furthermore, in order to enable input of consonants and tones using the same key, a consonant input mode and a tones input mode are provided, and these are switched each time a key is pressed. In other words, as mentioned above, syllables in Yi are expressed by a combination of consonants, vowels, and tones, so it is sufficient to alternate between inputting consonants and inputting tones that are a combination of vowels and tones. It is.

[0018]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the Yi character input device of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, 1 is a keyboard. Reference numeral 2 denotes an intermediate code generating means for generating an intermediate code based on the key code sent from the keyboard. This generates intermediate codes by accessing the intermediate code table 20, which is a table representing the correspondence between key codes and intermediate codes, but it also determines whether the currently input voice is the initial or the cadence. It has an input mode flag 21 indicating whether it is a voice (the initials and tones will be described later).

Reference numeral 3 denotes a character converting means for converting the intermediate code generated by the intermediate code generating means 2 into an A character. This has an intermediate code buffer 31 that stores a maximum of two intermediate codes, and the intermediate code stored in this buffer allows two intermediate codes to be stored.
The character conversion dictionary 30 showing the correspondence between the syllables represented by intermediate codes and the A character is searched, and the character code corresponding to the A character is output.

Reference numeral 4 denotes a display means for displaying input A characters, and in addition to the display 40, it has a screen code buffer, a character generator, etc. (not shown) for displaying characters on the display 40. be.

Next, FIG. 2 shows the key arrangement of the keyboard 1 of the Yi character input device shown in FIG. 1. Most of the character keys in FIG. 2 are assigned both initials and tones. Here, the initials are the 43 consonants plus a zero-voice final "'" indicating that there is no consonant.

These character keys 11 are also used to input initials and tones. In this embodiment, the initials are engraved on the left side of the character keys 11, and are indicated by capital letters of the alphabet. In addition, tones are engraved on the right side of the character keys 11, and are indicated by lowercase letters of the alphabet. Further, a shift key 12 is provided below the character key group 11, which is a position where it is easy to press with the thumb when inputting with both hands. This is because when inputting the initial or cadence stamped on the upper side of the character key 11, keys are pressed simultaneously with the shift key 12. In the keyboard with the arrangement shown in FIG. 2, the character keys for inputting high-pitched and medium-high tones are arranged on the left, and the character keys for inputting sub-high and low-descending tones are arranged on the right. The tones of medium and low tones are input by pressing the character keys alone, and the tones of high tones and the next high tone are input by pressing the character keys 11 and shift key 12 simultaneously. In addition, in the keyboard of FIG. 2, the tone symbol of medium tone is represented by the number 0.

FIG. 1 using the keyboard of FIG. 2
The operation of the Japanese character input device will be explained. (1) When the character key 11 of the keyboard 1 in FIG. A read address for the intermediate code table 20 is created based on the value of the input mode flag 21, and thereby the intermediate code is read from the intermediate code table 20.

The initial value of the input mode flag 21 is off, which indicates that the input mode is the initial input mode. As a result, if the input mode flag is off, the intermediate code corresponding to the initial is read out and sent to the character conversion means 3.

Thereafter, by turning on the value of the input mode flag 21, the mode is switched to the tone input mode. ■ The character conversion means 3 stores the sent intermediate code in the intermediate code buffer 31 in the character conversion means 3, and also sends this intermediate code to the display means 4, so that the display 41 displays Roman characters corresponding to the intermediate code. is displayed. ■ When the character key 11 is further pressed, the input mode flag 21 is turned on, so the intermediate code generation means 2 generates an intermediate code of the tone corresponding to the pressed character key 11 (and shift key 12). It is read out and sent to the character conversion means 3, and then the value of the input mode flag 21 is turned off to return to the initial input mode. ■ The character conversion means 3 stores this tone intermediate code in the intermediate code buffer 31, combines it with the already stored initial intermediate code to create an address for accessing the character conversion dictionary 30, and converts the corresponding image. Read the character code of a character. (2) When the display means 4 receives the character code read out by the character conversion means 3, it displays the I character on the display 40, replacing it with the Roman alphabet corresponding to the initial displayed earlier.

Furthermore, an example of actual input will be explained using FIG. In FIG. 3, the blocks on the left side indicate pressed keys, and the blocks on the middle side show processing by the intermediate code output means 3 based on the pressed keys in the left block.

[0028] Also, the block on the right side is the display 40.
This represents the display of This is because the character conversion means 3 that receives the initial code and cadence code generated by the intermediate code generation means 2 shown in the middle block outputs the code of the I character, and the screen display corresponding to this output It shows.

b) When the key 11A is pressed in the initial state (mode flag 21 is off) (101),
Since the mode flag 21 is off, after the initial code q is read out, the value of the mode flag 21 is turned on (1
02). The sent intermediate code is sent to intermediate code buffer 3.
1, and the corresponding alphabet q is displayed on the display 40 (103).

B) When the key 11B is then pressed (111), the mode flag 21 is on, so the cadence code OP is read out, and then the value of the mode flag 21 is turned off (112). . On the display 40, the I character converted by the combination of the initial code q and the tone code OP is displayed as the alphabet q (1
13).

C) Next, when the key 11C is pressed (
121), since the mode flag 21 is off, the initial code b is read out, and then the value of the mode flag 21 is turned on (122). The alphabet b is newly displayed on the display 40 (123).

d) When key 11B is pressed (131)
, since the value of the mode flag 21 is on, the tone code o
p is read and the value of mode flag 21 is turned off (
132). The I character converted by the combination of the initial code b and the tone code op is displayed on the display 40 instead of the alphabet b (133).

As described above, since the initial input mode and the cadence input mode are reversed every time a key is pressed, it is possible to input both the initial and the cadence by assigning them to the same character key. Note that the I language explained above is the standard Yi language, and the I character in the standard Yi language is a syllabic character, so when the input of one syllable is completed as described above, the character conversion means 3 Since the syllable is automatically converted into the I character representing the syllable by referring to the character conversion dictionary, the operator does not need to press a conversion key.

However, the traditional I character used before the establishment of the standard I language is both a phonetic character and an ideogram, and there may be multiple I characters representing the same syllable. When implementing such a device for inputting traditional A characters, conversion efficiency is improved if a plurality of A characters are combined and converted word by word. For this purpose, for example, the intermediate code buffer 31 may have a capacity that can store intermediate codes for a plurality of characters, and the character conversion dictionary 30 may have information in units of words (combinations of a plurality of I characters).

[0035]

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to realize an Yi language character input device which can input all characters of the standard Yi language with two keystrokes and has a small number of input keys.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of an Yi character input device of the present invention.

[Figure 2] Keyboard 1 of the Yi character input device in Figure 1
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a key arrangement.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a specific example of character input using the Yi language character input device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the correspondence between the alphabetical notation shown in Table 1 and the Japanese characters.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Keyboard 2 Intermediate code generation means 20 Intermediate code table 21 Input mode flag 3 Character conversion means 30 Character conversion dictionary 31 Intermediate code buffer 4 Display means 40 Display

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An Iji character input device that accesses a character conversion dictionary (30) based on information about multiple keystrokes input using a keyboard (1) and outputs a corresponding character code, comprising:
The keyboard (1) has the same input key (11) as a key for inputting the consonant of the letter of the Yi language and a key for inputting the tone that is a combination of the vowel of the letter of the Yi language and the tone.
and a consonant input mode in which an intermediate code corresponding to a consonant is generated when the input key (11) is pressed, and a tone input mode in which an intermediate code corresponding to a tone is generated. The consonant input mode and the cadence input mode are switched each time a key is pressed,
An I-language character input device characterized in that the character conversion dictionary (30) is accessed using information that combines the consonant intermediate code and the tone intermediate code. 2. An Yi language character input device that accesses a character conversion dictionary (30) based on information about multiple keystrokes input using a keyboard (1) and outputs a corresponding character code, comprising:
The keyboard (1) has the same input keys (11
), and has a mode flag (21) indicating whether it is a consonant input mode or a rhyme input mode,
Intermediate code generating means (2) for generating intermediate codes corresponding to consonants and tones by combining keystroke information from the keyboard (1) and the value of the mode flag (21), and then inverting the value of the mode flag. Then, the character conversion dictionary (30) is accessed based on information combining the intermediate code corresponding to the consonant and the intermediate code corresponding to the tone sent from the intermediate code generating means (2) to generate the character code. 1. An Yi language character input device comprising: character conversion means (3) for outputting characters.