JP2666590B2 - A character input device - Google Patents

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 A, which is one of the languages of the ethnic minorities of the People's Republic of China.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The A-language is a language of ethnic minorities living in the southwestern region of the People's Republic of China (mainly Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou). There are various dialects of this language, but in 1980, the Chinese State Council established the standardized language, the Normative language.

The "normative language" (hereinafter simply referred to as "language") will be described below. One character of the A language corresponds to one syllable, and this one syllable can be divided into consonants, vowels, and tones (intonation).

There are 43 consonants in the A-language, 10 vowels,
There are four tones. The following table shows the consonants, vowels and tones of the A-language in alphabetical order.

[0005]

[Table 1]

[0006]

[Table 2]

[0007]

[Table 3] FIG. 4 shows the correspondence between the alphabetical notation of consonants, vowels, and tones and the letter A.

The alphabets in the above table are used when studying the A-language and the A-letter, and are standardized. However, this alphabet is not used for general sentences written in the A-language, and the A-letter is used. I do. The A character is a character that represents a syllable like Japanese kana. For Japanese kana,
Syllables can be decomposed into consonants and vowels. When decomposing Japanese syllables into consonants and vowels, there is no way to express consonants and vowels themselves, so this is sometimes expressed using Roman characters. For example, a syllable "ka" can be decomposed into a consonant "K" and a vowel "A", but there is no kana corresponding to the consonant "K". In addition, Roman letters are not generally used in Japanese sentences.
The alphabet notation shown in the above table was created for the same reason.

[0009] While there are 1102 types of syllables in the normative language, there are only 819 basic a characters representing the normative language. This is because syllables whose tone is mid-tone are indicated by placing a symbol such as shown in Table 3 on the basic A character representing the second harmonic.

[0010] In the case of realizing such an input device for the A-language, if keys are assigned to each A-character on the keyboard, the number of keys becomes 819. Although it is possible to reduce the number by a factor of several if the shift key is used, several hundred keys are absolutely necessary, and it is very difficult to memorize the key layout, which is not practical.

Therefore, a method is conceivable in which the input is performed using alphabets, as in the case of Roman character input in Japanese character input. This is practical because it is possible to input with a general English keyboard, but it is necessary to input a maximum of five keystrokes with one character (one syllable) in order to input a character in alphabet units. This is the case where the consonant is two keystrokes, the vowel is two keystrokes, and the tone is one keypress.

[0012]

As described above, in the conventional input device for A-language, the number of keystrokes is increased, so that there is a problem that the efficiency of creating a sentence is low. .

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to realize an A-character input device capable of inputting A-characters with a small number of keystrokes and having a small number of keys.

[0014]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a character input device according to the present invention accesses a character conversion dictionary 30 based on information of a plurality of keystrokes input by a keyboard 1 and outputs a corresponding character. An A-character input device for outputting a code, wherein a key for inputting a consonant of an A-character and a melody which combines a vowel and a tone of the A-character are input to the keyboard 1. And a consonant input mode for generating an intermediate code corresponding to a consonant when the input key 11 is depressed, and a rhythm for generating an intermediate code corresponding to the rhythm. An input mode is provided, and the consonant input mode and the melody input mode are switched for each keystroke of the input key. It is obtained by configured to access a character conversion dictionary 30.

[0015]

In other words, the character input device of the present invention divides the syllables of the A language into consonants and rhythms obtained by combining vowels and tones, and inputs these with two keystrokes.

In the A-language, there are 43 consonants, and if information indicating that there is no consonant is added, there are 44 consonants. Also, since there are 40 types of tones (combinations will be described later) obtained by combining 10 types of vowels and 4 types of tones, if the consonant input key and the vowel and tone input keys are shared,
Input is possible with at most 44 keys. Of course, if this is combined with a shift key, the number of keys can be further reduced.

In order to make it possible to input a consonant and a tone with the same key, a consonant input mode and a tone input mode are provided, and these are switched for each keystroke.
That is, as described above, the syllable of the A-language is represented by a combination of a consonant, a vowel, and a tone, so that the input of a consonant and the input of a rhythm that combines a vowel and a tone may be performed alternately. It is.

[0018]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an A-character input device according to the present invention; FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of one embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a keyboard. Reference numeral 2 denotes an intermediate code generating means for generating an intermediate code based on a key code sent from a keyboard. This is to generate an intermediate code by accessing an intermediate code table 20 which is a table showing the correspondence between the key code and the intermediate code. (The initial and the tonality will be described later).

Reference numeral 3 denotes a character conversion means for converting the intermediate code generated by the intermediate code generation means 2 into an A character. It has an intermediate code buffer 31 for storing up to two intermediate codes, and the intermediate code stored therein stores
The character conversion dictionary 30 indicating the correspondence between the syllables represented by the intermediate codes and the A character is searched, and a character code corresponding to the A character is output.

Reference numeral 4 denotes display means for displaying the input character "A". The display means 4 includes, in addition to the display 40, a screen code buffer and a character generator (not shown) for displaying characters on the display 40. is there.

Next, FIG. 2 shows a key arrangement of the keyboard 1 of the A-character input device shown in FIG. Most of the character keys in FIG. 2 are assigned both the initial and the tone. Here, the vowel is obtained by adding a zero vowel "'" indicating that there are no consonants to the 43 consonants.

The character keys 11 are used for inputting the initial and also for inputting the tone. In the present embodiment, a voice is engraved on the left side of the character key 11 and is indicated by capital letters of the alphabet. The tone is engraved on the right side of the character key 11, and is indicated by lowercase letters of the alphabet. Further, a single shift key 12 is provided below the character key group 11, which is a position where the user can easily touch with his / her thumb when inputting with both hands. This is because the input of the initial or the tone imprinted on the upper side of the character key 11 is performed by simultaneously pressing the shift key 12 and the key. In the keyboard having the arrangement shown in FIG. 2, the character keys for inputting the high tone and the middle tone are arranged on the left side, and the character keys for inputting the second harmonic and the low tone are arranged on the right side. The middle tone and low tone are input by tapping the character key alone, and the high tone and the second harmonic tone are input by simultaneous tapping of the character key 11 and the shift key 12. In the keyboard of FIG. 2, the tone symbol of the mid-tone tone is represented by the numeral 0.

FIG. 1 using the keyboard of FIG. 2 of FIG.
The operation of the A-character input device will now be described. When the character key 11 of the keyboard 1 in FIG. 1 is hit, the intermediate code generating means 2 determines whether or not there is a key code indicating the keying of the shift key 12 in addition to the key code indicating the key position of the character key 11. A read address of the intermediate code table 20 is created based on the value of the mode flag 21 and the intermediate code is read from the intermediate code table 20.

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

Thereafter, the input mode flag 21 is turned on to switch to the tone input mode. The character conversion means 3 stores the transmitted intermediate code in the intermediate code buffer 31 of the character conversion means 3 and transmits the intermediate code to the display means 4 so that the display 41 displays a Roman character corresponding to the intermediate code. Is displayed. When the character key 11 is further depressed, the input mode flag 21 is on, so that the intermediate code generating means 2 outputs the depressed character key 11 (and the shift key 1).
The intermediate code of the tone corresponding to 2) is read out and sent to the character converting means 3, and then the value of the input mode flag 21 is turned off to return to the voice input mode. The character conversion means 3 stores the intermediate code of the tone in the intermediate code buffer 31 and creates an address for accessing the character conversion dictionary 30 by combining the intermediate code with the already stored intermediate code of the initial. Read the character code of. When the display unit 4 receives the character code read by the character conversion unit 3, the display unit 4 replaces the character code with the Roman character corresponding to the previously displayed voice, and displays the character A on the display 40.

Further, an example of an actual input will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 3, the block on the left indicates a key that has been pressed, and the block on the middle indicates processing by the intermediate code output means 3 based on keying on the left block.

The block on the right is the display 40
Is displayed. This is because the character conversion means 3 which receives the voice code and the tone code generated by the intermediate code generation means 2 shown in the middle block outputs the code of the A-language character. Is shown.

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

B) Subsequently, when the key 11B is depressed (111), since the mode flag 21 is on, the tone code op is read out, and then the value of the mode flag 21 is turned off (112). . On the display 40, the A-language character converted by the combination of the initial code q and the rhythm code op is changed to the alphabet q and displayed.
13).

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

D) When the key 11B is depressed (13)
1) Since the value of the mode flag 21 is on, the rhythm code op is read, and the value of the mode flag 21 is turned off (132). The A-letter character converted by the combination of the initial code b and the tone code op is displayed on the display 40 in the form of an alphabet b (133).

Since the voice input mode and the tone input mode are inverted for each keystroke, both the voice and the tone can be assigned to the same character key for input. Note that the A word described above is the normative A word, and the A character in the normative A word is a syllabic character. Therefore, when the input of one syllable is completed as described above, the character conversion means 3 Since the character conversion dictionary is referred to and automatically converted to the letter A representing the syllable, the operator does not need to particularly press the conversion key.

However, the traditional A characters used before the establishment of the norm A language are not only phonograms but also ideograms, and there may be a plurality of A characters representing the same syllable. In the case of realizing such a device for inputting traditional A characters, conversion efficiency is good if a plurality of A characters are combined and converted in units of one word. For this purpose, for example, the intermediate code buffer 31 may have a capacity capable of storing intermediate codes for a plurality of characters, and the character conversion dictionary 30 may have information in word units (combinations of a plurality of A characters).

[0035]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to realize an A-character input device in which all the characters of the norm A can be input with two keystrokes and the number of input keys is small.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of an A-character input device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a keyboard 1 of the A-character input device in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a key arrangement of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a specific example of character input by the A-character input device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the correspondence between alphabetical notations and A-letter characters shown in Table 1.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION 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)

(57) [Claims] 1. An A-character input device for accessing a character conversion dictionary (30) based on information of a plurality of keystrokes input by a keyboard (1) and outputting a corresponding character code,
The keyboard (1) has the same input key (11) as a key for inputting a consonant of a character in A and a key for inputting a timbre combining a vowel and tone of the character in A.
And a consonant input mode for generating an intermediate code corresponding to a consonant when the input key (11) is depressed, and a tone input mode for generating an intermediate code corresponding to a tone. Each time a key is pressed, the consonant input mode and the rhythm input mode are switched,
An A-character input device, wherein the character conversion dictionary (30) is accessed using information obtained by combining the consonant intermediate code and the melody intermediate code. 2. An A-character input device for accessing a character conversion dictionary (30) based on information of a plurality of keystrokes input by a keyboard (1) and outputting a corresponding character code,
The keyboard (1) has the same input key (1) as a key for inputting a consonant of the A-letter character and a key for inputting a rhyme that combines a vowel and tone of the A-letter character.
1) and has a mode flag (21) indicating whether the mode is a consonant input mode or a rhythm input mode. Keying information from the keyboard (1) and the value of the mode flag (21) are Intermediate code generating means (2) for inverting the value of the mode flag after generating an intermediate code corresponding to a consonant and a tone, in combination with an intermediate code corresponding to a consonant sent from the intermediate code generating means (2) A character conversion means (3) for accessing the character conversion dictionary (30) on the basis of information obtained by combining the character conversion intermediate code and the intermediate code corresponding to the tone, and outputting a character code. Input device.