Comments on: Typewriter Has 2,000 Keys (Jan, 1937) http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2009/02/04/typewriter-has-2000-keys/ Yesterday's tomorrow, today. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:12:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.4 By: surveyork http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2009/02/04/typewriter-has-2000-keys/comment-page-1/#comment-1067308 surveyork Sat, 11 Apr 2009 19:35:16 +0000 http://blog.modernmechanix.com/?p=6982#comment-1067308 Kana (hiragana, katakana) are the Japanese syllabaries, not completely phonemic/phonetic. It's possible to type Japanese with Western keyboards: The input in "romanized/latinized" script is automatically converted to Japanese kana and then a selection of kanji is presented. The system for Chinese is similar, although there are several input methods for Chinese. At least one of them relies on the constituents of the character and not on its sound, so it's possible to type characters you don't know how to pronounce or what they mean. Chinese and Japanese could be perfectly written completely simpler ways like latin letters, in syllabaries like kana or alphabets like the Korean Hangul. Why don't they do it? Cultural and traditional reasons, mainly, not practical reasons. In fact, there where attempts to completely romanize Chinese and Japanese in the last century. Kana (hiragana, katakana) are the Japanese syllabaries, not completely phonemic/phonetic.
It’s possible to type Japanese with Western keyboards: The input in “romanized/latinized” script is automatically converted to Japanese kana and then a selection of kanji is presented. The system for Chinese is similar, although there are several input methods for Chinese. At least one of them relies on the constituents of the character and not on its sound, so it’s possible to type characters you don’t know how to pronounce or what they mean.

Chinese and Japanese could be perfectly written completely simpler ways like latin letters, in syllabaries like kana or alphabets like the Korean Hangul. Why don’t they do it? Cultural and traditional reasons, mainly, not practical reasons. In fact, there where attempts to completely romanize Chinese and Japanese in the last century.

]]> By: MrG http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2009/02/04/typewriter-has-2000-keys/comment-page-1/#comment-1065546 MrG Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:16:14 +0000 http://blog.modernmechanix.com/?p=6982#comment-1065546 I remember playing with a Japanese PC keyboard when I was in industry. It's the same as any other PC keyboard but the keys are marked in kana, the phonetic set. There are multiple kanji characters for each phonetic pronunciation -- the user types in the phonetics and then presses a key to cycle through the possible kanji to find the one wanted. From what I have been told Chinese works the same way, but since Chinese doesn't have a phonetic set they actually use a Roman-labelled keyboard to enter the phonetics. Cheers -- MrG / http://www.vectorsite.net/gblog.html I remember playing with a Japanese PC keyboard when I was in industry. It’s the same as any other PC keyboard but the keys are marked in kana, the phonetic set. There are multiple kanji characters for each phonetic pronunciation — the user types in the phonetics and then presses a key to cycle through the possible kanji to find the one wanted. From what I have been told Chinese works the same way, but since Chinese doesn’t have a phonetic set they actually use a Roman-labelled keyboard to enter the phonetics. Cheers — MrG / http://www.vectorsite.net/gblog.html

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