Hatrack River Forum: Typing phonetically with the cyrillic alphabet

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Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on :

After searching the Internet and getting fed up I shall pose this question to you all, as it is driving me batty.

I "turned on" the Russian language on my computer to be able to type that way. When I had Japanese installed before, I could type a word in phonetically and it would be written in the appropriate kana.

I'd like to be able to do this with Russian, but it doesn't seem to be working. Forgive me while I try to explain this using only Roman letters:

When I type "I" I expect to get the symbol that looks like a backwards N, because that's the symbol that is romanized to "I". But instead what I get is a symbol that looks like a 3 which makes a z sound. But when I type "Z" I get the backwards R symbol which makes the "ya" sound.

Does anyone know how to make it so that when I type a letter on the keyboard what comes up is the phonetic equivalent in Russian? (Or any other language?)

Posted by ludosti (Member # 1772) on :

I think it depends on what you're doing when you say you're "turning on" the Russian. I know there are programs for doing phonetic cyrillic with the keyboard (I've used them to do some wedding announcments in Bulgarian). However, most of the "default" stuff uses the placement of the letters on the cyrillic keyboard (which is what it sound like is happening to you). Too bad you don't have one of those keyboards with both English and Cyrillic letters on it. [Wink]

Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on :

It's pretty darned annoying that I find myself only able to type words that have a, T, x, and e in them.

Posted by Mike (Member # 55) on :

There's probably a keymap out there that'll do mostly what you want. But I don't really know offhand where you'd look for such a thing. I remember wanting something like this a couple years ago when I was taking Russian. Of course, you'll still have some trouble typing the letters without a Roman equivalent (myagkij znak, etc.).

I find it helps some to have a picture of a keyboard on screen with the correct letters in place. (Again, sorry I can't help with the specifics -- it's late here.) You'd be surprised how quickly your brain remaps itself.

Maybe Yozhik would know...

Posted by Corwin (Member # 5705) on :

If you have Windows XP:

Start menu -> Programs -> Accessories -> Accessibility -> On-screen Keyboard.

It shows you the current keyboard layout. For example, I have a French keyboard, but I set it to the English layout as I'm more used to it. And the "On-screen Keyboard" function shows that I have a "QWERTY" (English) keyboard, not a "AZERTY" (French) Keyboard.

[ August 21, 2004, 04:35 AM: Message edited by: Corwin ]

Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on :

See, I saw the QWERTY thing, but the problem is that mine has QWERTY specifically for each language, but it doesn't have it for Russian.

Posted by Yozhik (Member # 89) on :

quote:
However, most of the "default" stuff uses the placement of the letters on the cyrillic keyboard (which is what it sound like is happening to you).

I agree with this diagnosis.

I'll see if I can find a keymap that lets you type phonetically. What version of Windows are you running?

Posted by Yozhik (Member # 89) on :

Here's a start:

linky

[ August 24, 2004, 04:22 PM: Message edited by: Yozhik ]

Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on :

coooooooool.

Posted by Yozhik (Member # 89) on :

Actually, ignore the above link. This one looks better.

better link

Now to try it out...

Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on :

: )

Posted by Turgan (Member # 6697) on :

...
How come phonetic isn't spelled the way it sounds?

Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on :

Because it's a word in English?

Posted by Turgan (Member # 6697) on :

is it??/
CONFUUUUUUUUSED!

Posted by Yozhik (Member # 89) on :

I tried out the software for phonetic keyboard at the second link and it works! Yay!

(I used to have another Russian transliterated-keyboard file, but it wouldn't work under Windows ME for some reason, and then my computer died a spectacular death and was replaced with one running XT, so I lost the file and don't remember where I got it. Anyway, the new one is better.)

PSI, is it working on your computer?

Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on :

Yes it works! There are a couple letters that weren't transposed the way I would do it, but it should be simple to remember where those few characters are.

Thanks! [Big Grin]

Hey, I found out how to modify it. That helps even more.

[ August 24, 2004, 05:38 PM: Message edited by: PSI Teleport ]

Posted by Yozhik (Member # 89) on :

Ni za chto!