Language input keys, which are usually found on Japanese and Korean keyboards, are keys designed to translate letters using an input method editor (IME). On non-Japanese or Korean keyboard layouts using an IME, these functions can usually be reproduced via hotkeys, though not always directly corresponding to the behavior of these keys.
Japanese (OADG 109A) keyboard layout with Hiragana keys.Japanese Apple keyboard
The OADG 109A and older 109 keyboard layouts which are the standard for Microsoft Windows have five dedicated language input keys:[1]
halfwidth/fullwidth/kanji (hankaku/zenkaku/kanji 半角 / 全角 / 漢字) at the top left key of the keyboard;
alphanumeric (eisū 英数), combined with non-language specific key ⇪ Caps Lock;
non-conversion (muhenkan 無変換), on the left of the space bar;
conversion (henkan 変換), on the right of the space bar;
katakana/hiragana/rōmaji (カタカナ / ひらがな / ローマ字), on the right of the space bar, next to 変換.
Apple keyboards designed for Mac OS X have two language input keys: alphanumeric (英数) and kana (かな).
The keyboards for NECPC-9800 series, which was dominant in Japan during the 1980s and early 1990s, have three language input keys: kana, NFER (no transfer, same as nonconversion), XFER (transfer, same as conversion).[2]
For non-Japanese keyboards, the following shortcuts can be used for typing Japanese on English keyboard with Windows:
Alt + Shift switch between languages (IMEs)
Ctrl + Caps Lock switch to Hiragana
Alt + Caps Lock if in alphanumeric mode change to Hiragana, then switch to Katakana
Half-width/Full-width/Kanji (半角 / 全角 / 漢字, hankaku/zenkaku/kanji) toggles between entering half-width or full-width characters (if 2 versions of same character exists), and also between IME on (for Japanese, see Kanji key) and off (for English, see Alphanumeric key). Prior Windows 98 and older systems, the key was only with Half-width/Full-width function.
Kanji
Used to switch between entering Japanese and English text. It is not found as a separate key in the modern Japanese 106/109-key keyboard layout. On the Common Building Block (CBB) Keyboard for Notebooks, as many 106/109-key keyboards, the Kanji key is located on the Half-width/Full-width key, and needs the key ALT. It is found as a separate key on the IBM PS/55 5576-001 keyboard. On the IBM PS/55 5576-002 keyboard, it is mapped to the left Alt key.
Alphanumeric
Alphanumeric (英数, eisū) toggles alphanumeric characters. In the Japanese 106/109-key layout, it is located on the Caps Lock key. Pressing Alphanumeric/Caps Lock key alone actually means alphanumeric function, a user has to press ⇧ Shift+英数 / Caps Lock key to get caps lock function.
Conversion
Conversion (変換, henkan) is used to convert kana to kanji. In the Microsoft IME, Conversion selects conversion candidates on highlighted input, and ⇧ Shift+変換 is used to display the previous candidate, or zenkōho (前候補). The alt version of this key is also pronounced zenkōho (全候補), which means "all candidates", shows all input candidates.
Non-conversion
Non-conversion (無変換, muhenkan) specifies that the kana characters entered are not to be converted into kanji candidates.
Katakana/Hiragana/Rōmaji
Katakana,hiragana,rōmaji (ひらがな / カタカナ / ローマ字, katakana,hiragana,rōmaji) used to switch between hiragana or katakana characters. It can also be found for switching between hiragana, katakana and rōmaji as shown below. Alt+ひらがな / カタカナ / ローマ字 or Ctrl+⇧ Shift+ひらがな / カタカナ / ローマ字[3] (this feature is printed as Rōmaji (ローマ字) on the same key) toggles between rōmaji input and direct kana input in some IMEs (e.g. Microsoft IME).
カタカナ ひらがな ローマ字
Keys for Korean Keyboards
Dubeolsik (두벌식) layout, the national standard layout of South Korea
The standard keyboard layout for IBM PC compatibles of South Korea is almost identical to the U.S. layout, with some exceptions:
On the top of the \ key, the backslash is replaced with the ₩ (Won sign) or both of them are printed. The backslash has the shape of the Won sign including system fonts such Gulim (굴림) and Malgun Gothic (맑은 고딕). Note that vertical bar | (⇧ Shift+\) is also replaced as the broken bar ¦ on some South Korean keyboards, but the broken bar in Unicode (U+00A6) is not inputted by most of Korean IMEs.
Keyboards with a small ← Backspace key and large "backwards-L" shaped ↵ Enter key are commonly used in South Korea.
There are two additional keys: 한/영Han/Yeong (or 한영HanYeong) and 한자Hanja (or 漢字Hanja) keys. They do not exist as independent keys on some keyboards.
Many computer systems support alternative keys or key sequences for keyboards without the Han/Yeong key. It is absent from the keyboards of most portable computers in South Korea, where the right Alt key is used instead. On the right Alt key of these devices, only "한/영" (Han/Yeong) or both "한/영" (Han/Yeong) and Alt are printed.
Hanja (한자)
It converts Hangul to Chinese characters (hanja) or some special characters.
Many computer systems support alternative keys or key sequences for keyboards without the Hanja key. It is absent from the keyboards of most portable computers in South Korea, where the right Ctrl key is used instead. On the right Ctrl key of these devices, only "한자" (Hanja) or both "한자" (Hanja) and Ctrl are printed.
Furigana is a Japanese reading aid consisting of smaller kana or syllabic characters printed either above or next to kanji or other characters to indicate their pronunciation. It is one type of ruby text. Furigana is also known as yomigana (読み仮名) and rubi in Japanese. In modern Japanese, it is usually used to gloss rare kanji, to clarify rare, nonstandard or ambiguous kanji readings, or in children's or learners' materials. Before the post-World War II script reforms, it was more widespread.
Hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana as well as kanji.
Katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script.
Kana are syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. Such syllabaries include (1) the original kana, or magana, which were Chinese characters (kanji) used phonetically to transcribe Japanese, the most prominent magana system being man'yōgana (万葉仮名); the two descendants of man'yōgana, (2) hiragana, and (3) katakana. There are also hentaigana, which are historical variants of the now-standard hiragana. In current usage, 'kana' can simply mean hiragana and katakana.
Hepburn romanization is the most widely used system of romanization for the Japanese language. The system was originally published in 1867 by James Curtis Hepburn as the standard in the first edition of his Japanese–English dictionary. The system is distinct from other romanization methods in its use of English orthography to phonetically transcribe sounds: for example, the syllable [ɕi] is written as shi and [tɕa] is written as cha, reflecting their spellings in English.
In relation to the Japanese language and computers many adaptation issues arise, some unique to Japanese and others common to languages which have a very large number of characters. The number of characters needed in order to write in English is quite small, and thus it is possible to use only one byte (28=256 possible values) to encode each English character. However, the number of characters in Japanese is many more than 256 and thus cannot be encoded using a single byte - Japanese is thus encoded using two or more bytes, in a so-called "double byte" or "multi-byte" encoding. Problems that arise relate to transliteration and romanization, character encoding, and input of Japanese text.
Man'yōgana is an ancient writing system that uses Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. It was the first known kana system to be developed as a means to represent the Japanese language phonetically. The date of the earliest usage of this type of kana is not clear, but it was in use since at least the mid-7th century. The name "man'yōgana" derives from the Man'yōshū, a Japanese poetry anthology from the Nara period written with man'yōgana.
In the Japanese writing system, hentaigana are variant forms of hiragana.
Wāpuro rōmaji (ワープロローマ字), or kana spelling, is a style of romanization of Japanese originally devised for entering Japanese into word processors while using a Western QWERTY keyboard.
The modern Japanese writing system uses a combination of logographic kanji, which are adopted Chinese characters, and syllabic kana. Kana itself consists of a pair of syllabaries: hiragana, used primarily for native or naturalised Japanese words and grammatical elements; and katakana, used primarily for foreign words and names, loanwords, onomatopoeia, scientific names, and sometimes for emphasis. Almost all written Japanese sentences contain a mixture of kanji and kana. Because of this mixture of scripts, in addition to a large inventory of kanji characters, the Japanese writing system is considered to be one of the most complicated currently in use.
Gyaru-moji or heta-moji is a style of obfuscated (cant) Japanese writing popular amongst urban Japanese youth. As the name gyaru-moji suggests, this writing system was created by and remains primarily employed by young women.
Japanese input methods are used to input Japanese characters on a computer.
JIS X 0201, a Japanese Industrial Standard developed in 1969, was the first Japanese electronic character set to become widely used. It is either a 7-bit encoding or an 8-bit encoding, although the 8-bit form is dominant for modern use. The full name of this standard is 7-bit and 8-bit coded character sets for information interchange (7ビット及び8ビットの情報交換用符号化文字集合).
ATOK is a Japanese input method editor (IME) produced by JustSystems, a Japanese software company.
Kotoeri (ことえり) was a Japanese language input method that came standard with OS X and earlier versions of Classic Mac OS until OS X Yosemite. Kotoeri literally means "word selection".
The Japanese script reform is the attempt to correlate standard spoken Japanese with the written word, which began during the Meiji period. This issue is known in Japan as the kokugo kokuji mondai. The reforms led to the development of the modern Japanese written language, and explain the arguments for official policies used to determine the usage and teaching of kanji rarely used in Japan.
The romanization of Japanese is the use of Latin script to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is sometimes referred to in Japanese as rōmaji.
A keyboard layout is any specific physical, visual or functional arrangement of the keys, legends, or key-meaning associations (respectively) of a computer keyboard, mobile phone, or other computer-controlled typographic keyboard.
The thumb-shift keyboard is a keyboard design for inputting Japanese sentences on word processors and computers. It was invented by Fujitsu in the late 1970s and released in 1980 as a feature of the line of Japanese word processors the company sold, named OASYS, to make Japanese input easier, faster and more natural. It is popular among people who input large quantities of Japanese sentences, such as writers, playwrights, lawyers and so on, because of its ease of use and speed. The rights regarding the use of this design were transferred to Nihongo Nyuuryoku Consortium, a technology sharing cooperative of interested companies, in 1989. It is referred to as an example of keyboard layout in Japanese Industrial Standards.
Several mutually incompatible versions of the Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (EBCDIC) have been used to represent the Japanese language on computers, including variants defined by Hitachi, Fujitsu, IBM and others. Some are variable-width encodings, employing locking shift codes to switch between single-byte and double-byte modes. Unlike other EBCDIC locales, the lowercase basic Latin letters are often not preserved in their usual locations.
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