Pinyin input method
The pinyin method (拼音輸入法) refers to a family of input methods based on the pinyin method of romanization.
In the most basic form, the pinyin method allows a user to input Chinese characters by enterng the pinyin spelling of a Chinese character (with or without tone, depending on the system) and then presenting the user with a list of possible characters with that pronunciation. However, there are a number of slightly different such systems in use, and modern pinyin methods provide a number of convenience features.
Variations
Pinyin-based input methods differ in a number of possible aspects, including:
- Input of the letter ü: The letter ü might need to be input using different keys in different systems
- Handling of tones: Entering of the Mandarin tones might be mandatory (帶調), or tones might need to be omitted (不帶調)
- Number of Chinese characters to convert: In the most basic systems, one character is converted at a time; in more sophisticated systems, the user can convert two or more characters at a time
Convenience features
Most pinyin-based input methods provide convenience features to speed up the input of characters. The most common convenience features include
- allowing the user to input more than one character at a time
- guessing the next character after the user has input a character (association 聯想)
- adjusting the position of candidate characters in the list, based on the frequency that the characters are typed
- allowing the user to omit all but the first or first couple of characters
- allowing a user who cannot speak perfect Mandarin to input slightly incorrect pronunciations (模糊音)
Some of these convenience features can speed up typing immensely. For example, it might be possible to get the word for "concert" (音乐会) by just inputting "yyh". Input of longer words or phrases may be sped up even more if the system recognizes the words; for example, to input the phrase "the People's Republic of China" (中华人民共和国) the user might only need to input "zhhrmghg".
Advantages and disadvantages
The obvious advantage of pinyin-based input methods is the ease of learning; native Mandarin speakers would be able to input Chinese characters with virtually no learning.
For people who have difficulty speaking Mandarin, however, this advantage becomes its disadvantage. Systems allowing the user to input incorrect pronunciations alleviate this problem somewhat.
Because pinyin is used mostly in the People's Republic of China, pinyin methods frequently work better when inputting simplified Chinese. Depending on the system, input of traditional Chinese may or work, or it might not be input some characters, or some of the convenience features might not work.