So, Jianpin (简拼 / “Simple Pinyin”) is a way of typing Chinese in an input method editor using only the initials of characters’ romanizations, and I think it’s way cool. Like if you’re entering a Chinese typing speed competition, Jianpin is what you’ll use, no exception — it is FAST! You can just type tsg and hit 1 and there, 图书馆.
And for a while now as I’ve frequented Blorptube’s live chatroom for movie and show streams, I’ve cursed my typing speed and felt envious of this super fast system Chinese has. So that’s what’s got me wondering: what would an English-language form of Jianpin look like? The closest thing I know of is predictive text or even stenotype, but they aren’t really the same thing.
And while pondering this question I of course had to come up with my own idea of how “Jianpin for English” might work, but before I share that idea I just want to make sure that no such thing already exists.
It really isn’t though, I pointed this out. I have contemplated trying stenotype (not a cheap hobby, though!), but when I say “like Jianpin” I mean very specifically an input method using the familiar QWERTY keyboard layout and familiar spellings — and decidedly not chording with a special chording keyboard which requires lots of practice and training to memorize.