Phonetic multilingual word processor

Abstract

A word processor using a standard United States keyboard is provided which enables appropriate Chinese, Japanese, or other characters, to be selected phonetically and recorded for subsequent print-out. The letters on the standard keyboard are actuated to display characters corresponding to the Chinese words or syllables, each of which generally includes a consonant and a vowel. The keys of the keyboard are marked on top with letters corresponding phonetically with the consonant portions of the Japanese, Chinese or other words. The consonants are phonetically selected by the phonetic standard American letters on the keyboard, since the correspondence between the Chinese or Japanese consonants and the English letters are generally understood by Chinese and Japanese people. The keys on the keyboard are also marked, on the front sides, with characters and letters corresponding phonetically to the vowel portions of the Chinese or Japanese words. For each word, the first key operated constitutes a phonetic selection of the consonant of a desired word, and the second key operated constitutes a phonetic selection the vowel of the desired word. The result for most selected words, unless the exact vowel tone is selected, is that a number of different characters corresponding phonetically to the selected words, and variants, are displayed, and the operator then selects the proper character corresponding to the correct word, and causes only the proper character to be transferred to the text portion of the display screen. When the tone of the desired is known further keys may be operated which serve to reduce the number of variance displayed. The process is repeated until a complete page of selected correct characters appear on the text portion of the screen, and at that time the page is transferred to a floppy disc memory for subsequent print out. The word processor of the invention can also be adapted to other languages, such as Russian, Arabic, Korean, etc.