Subject: using abbrev mode to enter Chinese phrases

From: Stephen G Simpson <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 1991 11:14:29 -0500

There have been some recent postings on how to efficiently enter
Chinese phrases (Ci Hui).  Some of the solutions that people have used
in the past are: Yi Tian box files, and the Chtext self-expanding
phrase dictionary.  I have not used Tian Ma but my impression is that
it has sophisticated methods for entering phrases.

One way to enter Chinese phrases is to use abbrev mode in GNU Emacs
(or Cemacs, running under cxterm).  GNU Emacs abbrev files can be
saved and edited, so this provides a capability something like Yi Tian
box files.  Yu Shen in his zw-mode posting was using GNU Emacs abbrev
mode to create something like a self-expanding phrase dictionary.

A problem facing Yu Shen is that he was trying to use full pinyin
spellings for abbreviations, and these abbreviations are too hard to
type and remember.

To address Yu Shen's problem, perhaps it is practical to follow Carlos
McEvilly's suggestion.  Carlos was talking about Yi Tian box files,
but the same applies to GNU Emacs abbrev files.  Namely, just use the
first letter in the pinyin spelling of each word of the phrase.  For
instance a 4-character phrase like "Chuan1 Shan1 Guo4 Hai3" (pierce
mountain cross sea) could be abbreviated "csgh".  This kind of
abbreviation should be very easy to remember and to type.

Stephen G. Simpson               [email-masked]
Department of Mathematics        +1 814 863-0775
Pennsylvania State University    home: +1 814 238-2274
University Park, PA 16802