I've taken it upon myself to go after Japanese keyboards to type in kana. Many use romazi. Even with the fastest typers out there, romanized typing is a problem as it lowers your realtime communication speed.
The typing of one syllable by hand as opposed to typing a syllable per keystroke is annoying. I've gotten numerous requests over the years on setting up these keyboards as western keyboards are set to 101 keyboard layout.
JPN keyboards have 106 keys and without a Japanese keyboard it becomes impossible to type the syllable RO without remapping keys. There is a fix for this to those who have these keyboards and find those keys are not working.
Regedit connects you to your windows registry, the holy grail of changing windows settings
Here is the actual way to get the keys working once the keyboard is connected.
You will need to edit the registry to make it 106-key.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\i8042prt\Parameters
Change these entries:
LayerDriver JPN REG_SZ kbd106.dll
OverrideKeyboardIdentifier REG_SZ PCAT_106KEY
OverrideKeyboardSubtype DWORD 2
OverrideKeyboardType DWORD 7
This gets RO to work in order to type with syllables.
Here are standard instructions on operating in the language through the IME
Shift+ [ ] = Dialogue Markers
Shift+ < > ? = Comma, Period, Divider
Shift + z, e,3,4,5,6 = small tsu + small letters
Shift + 7,8,9 = small ya,yu,yo
Shift + 0 = wo
For those who have 101 key keyboards (standard keyboards)
Shift+Alt = Change to alphanumerics (changes language)
Alt+ Caps, Control + Caps = The change from hiragana to katakana (back and forth)
There are additional keys in jpn keyboards to change between alphanumerics and kana without changing to English.
For those who are interested in what keys type what in Kana:
Row 1
-------------------------
1=nu
2=fu
3=a
4=u
5=e
6=o
7=ya
8=yu
9=yo
0=wa
"Dash" = ho
"equalSign" = he
Row 2
--------------------------
Q= TA
W= TE
E= I
R= SU
T= KA
Y= N
U= NA
I= NI
O= RA
P= SE
[ = turns into form 2
] = turns into form 3
\ = mu
Row 3
---------------------------
A=ti
S=to
D=shi
F=ha
G=ki
H=ku
J=ma
K=no
L=ri
;=re
'=ke
Row 4
----------------------------
Z=tsu
X=sa
C=so
V=hi
B=ko
N=mi
M=mo
,=ne
.=ru
/=me
Japanese keyboards, one types Ro through one of the added keys not present on the 101 keyboard. The key to the right of forward slash.
[ and ] are what changes between syllable strength. Like Ha to Ba to PA or Shi to Ji. Typing double-letters like in kikko, is Ki + small tsu (shift + z) + ko.
The JPN keyboards have you use the rules of Japanese in typing, you place the signs that change syllables to stronger forms. Ok, finally, the three letter syllables. In Japanese those are achieved through using a syllables that end in letter 'i" and then using a "small ya, yu or yo"
like if I used Ni
Ni + small ya = Nya
Ni + small yu = Nyu
Ni + small yo = Nyo
How about the sound a cat makes?
Nyau ^_^
I am hoping this helps some who are working with the language. The purpose of this thread is not to have people type in Romazi, but for those who wish to type in Kana to not lose communication speed.
Think of this thread as a "gateway" thread.
If you plan on playing many Japanese Online games in the future or plan on staying for a long time, the 106 key keyboard is worth learning and you can type on a resume that you have experience in formal jpn typing, which is a skill in demand in the US.
Oh yes, the last issue:
Suppose you do have a basic keyboard and just want to remap a key to RO and not buy a JPN keyboard. You can download a remapping program that allows you to build keyboards and then map them. One can also change layouts. I recommend the standard layout with one remapped key to Ro.
This thread is a compilation of data from own experience along with some support pages on the microsoft site along with my notes. I hope it helps someone. ^_^
Connect With Us