This article is from WeChat official account: husk (ID: Guokr42) , Author: Diana, Editor: Luna, from FIG head: Visual China
Backspace for reverse deletion, space with only two and a half letter keys, and “7” type carriage return… These keyboards are real and widely used in some areas!
The current common keyboard layout in our country is the standard American keyboard. This layout invented by the Americans is used in both English and non-English regions such as the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and China. It is the most widely used keyboard layout in the world.
However…
There are six ways to write fennel, and there are several ways to arrange the keyboard
British and American keyboards are very different
Both belong to English-speaking countries, but the keyboards used in the United Kingdom and the United States are quite different.
The author once went to the UK as an exchange student for a period of time. The dead line is approaching, but my computer is broken. In a hurry, I borrowed the computer of a British classmate next door to send an email to the professor. When I wrote the text, everything was as usual, nothing was wrong; and when I entered someone’s mailbox, I habitually held down the shift and number 2 keys, and the result was not “@”, but double quotes. At this time, I looked down at the keyboard–
Take a closer look, what is the difference from what you often use? | Wikimedia Commons
At first glance, The British keyboard and the American keyboard also have a different shape of the carriage return-the American keyboard is a long bar, while the British keyboard has a carriage return shape similar to the number “7”(The carriage return in many European countries is like this); but if you take a closer look, you will find that the positions of some special symbols have also changed.
Also, what’s the matter with the blue letters?
This is actually derived from French words in English. There are many French-derived words in English, such as café(Cafe) and fiancé(Fiance), British English is used to retain the transcription of some of these words, but American English does not. The difference between the two keyboards reflects this-the two alt keys on the left and right of the American keyboard have the same function, while the alt key on the right of the British keyboard becomes “alt gr”, just press and hold it. Type the blue letters and symbols in the picture. So, with the help of the British keyboard, you can easily type things such as cliché(cliche), résumé(resume) such English words with transcription.
Between changing the layout and hand-drawing, they choose to change the layout
In addition to the widely used QWERTY sorting, in Germany, France and other places, the letters on the computer keyboard have other sorting methods.
WinGerman keyboard with QWERTZ layout under dow system | Wikimedia Commons
French keyboard with AZERTY layout under Window system | Wikimedia Commons
The most significant difference between these two keyboards and the American keyboard is the alphabetical ordering. Compared with the American keyboard, the positions of the letters Z and Y on the German keyboard are interchanged, and the positions of the letters A and Q, Z and W on the French keyboard are also interchanged.
Z is far more common than Y in German. If sorted according to the American QWERTY, when typing in German, the letter Z that is widely used can only be tapped with our weakest and slender little finger, while the less frequently used letter Y occupies the “golden position” that can be taken into account by the right index finger.< span class="text-remarks" label="Remarks">(If it is two-finger Zen…when I didn’t say it). The situation in French is similar.
So, between the little thumb cramping and changing the original keyboard layout, they chose to change the keyboard layout. Because the keys of Z and Y in the German keyboard are reversed, the German keyboard is also called “kezboard” by people.
This layout also makes many friends who are used to American keyboards crashing | 9gag.com
Do letters need to be transcribed? “Dead keys” to help
Students who observe carefully may have discovered that there are several red keys on the German and French keyboards. Under Windows, when you press them, nothing will happen; and after pressing them and then pressing other letters, there will be a little bit of skimming on the letters you type-these keys are called “dead keys” (dead key) is prepared for letters that require transcription.
The Spanish keyboard with the same QWERTY sort also has “dead keys” | Wikimedia Commons
German, French, Spanish and other languages that use the Latin alphabet will appear similar to the transcription on a letter of a word. Some of these “phonetic transcriptions” are part of some individual diacritical letters, such as Ä in German and Ñ in Spanish. Some just mark the accent of the word, while others have a great influence on the meaning of the word. If you swipe without adding a transcription, the meaning of the whole sentence will change…
When I first learned Spanish, I often didn’t add it because of papáI was deducted by the teacher, but fortunately I always remember that año should add “~” | The author self-cut
All those mentioned above belong to the category of Latin alphabet, and in some countries that do not borrow Latin alphabet as their native language, the situation is even more special…
Being special? We are compelled
Arabic: It’s the opposite of you
Different from Chinese and English, which are more familiar to us, Arabic is read from right to left. Therefore, when you switch to Arabic input, the cursor will automatically jump to the far right, and even the backspace key deletes things from left to right.
“Rebellious” Arabic keyboard layout | Wikimedia Commons
Although it is an Arabic keyboard, there is no way to directly type Arabic numbers.(Arabic numbers are not invented by Arabs either…). The American keyboard corresponds to the position of the number. In the Arabic input method of the Mac system, it is the alphabet that represents the number in Arabic; and in the Windows system, it is some special symbols. If you want to type out Arabic numerals, you need to hold down the shift key and then enter.
This is actually fine. Although the operation is a bit more troublesome, you can still enter Arabic numbers under the Arabic input method; while the Thai input method is not so lucky.
Thai: Arabic numerals? what is that?
Thai keyboard without number keys | Wikimedia Commons
Thai has up to 65 letters and 4 tone symbols. With so many letters, the limited number of keys on the keyboard was helpless, so I had to give up the position of the Arabic numerals on the main keyboard-So the Thai keyboard was full of letters, phonetic symbols and special symbols. Therefore, if you want to input Arabic numerals under the Thai input method, you have to use the small keyboard.
What? You asked me what should I do if I don’t have a small keyboard? ——Change the input method.
Korean: Korean “Pinyin” is on the keyboard
The Korean text is called “Hangul”(언문／Hangul). Hangul is a kind of phonetic script, a bit similar to Hanyu Pinyin. Therefore, there are a lot of words in Korean that have the same pronunciation and the same “look” but have different meanings. For example, “story”, “Ancient Temple”, etc. are all written as “고사”. Just looking at the word, you have no idea what it means. , Can only judge the meaning of a word based on the context.
The commonly used “two-zone” (두벌식) keyboard for Korean input | Wikipedia/ Yes0song
The Hangul keyboard is somewhat similar to the Chinese Wubi input method, except that the roots of the Hangul keyboard are directly printed on the keyboard. Under the Korean input method, the left half of the keyboard is the consonant roots, and the right half is the vowel roots; some roots need to be typed by pressing the shift key.
In the picture above, there is a small button on each side of the space: “한자” on the left (Chinese characters) key can switch between Hangul and Chinese characters Input; the “한/영” (Korean/English) key on the right can switch between Hangul and English input. However, these two keys are no longer visible on some Hangul keyboards.
Japanese: Our space is the shortest in the world
There are three types of characters in Japanese: Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana. Correspondingly, there are three keys for switching between these three types of characters on the Japanese keyboard. These keys are arranged next to the space, squeezing the space to occupy three key positions-just like this, the Japanese keyboard has the world’s shortest space bar, which is only a little longer than two normal letter keys.
Space: I am petite and cute | Wikipedia/StuartBrady
In addition, similar to the Chinese Pinyin input method, Japanese can also be directly input using Roman accents; however, the most commonly used input method for Japanese people is the “ten-key