Tangent's Blog

¶Preface

I found that it’s quite hard to search things on the internet with English about Bopomofo chord mentioned in my other articles. Maybe there is no official or general translation for this thing, so I decided to write this article to explain Bopomofo chord in detail.

¶What is Bopomofo?

According to Wikipedia, Bopomofo is a transliteration system for Standard Chinese and other Sinitic languages. It’s used to transcribe all possible sounds in Mandarin, i.e., the sound of every Chinese character can be described by Bopomofo.

For example, 你好 (Hello in English) has two Chinese characters. The Bopomofo of 你 here is ㄋㄧˇ, and the Bopomofo of 好 here is ㄏㄠˇ. (Same Chinese character may have different pronciations at different places.)

There are three kinds of Bopomofo symbols, consonants, medials and rhymes. The Bopomofo of a Chinese character has at most one consonant, one medial and one rhyme, and it must have a tone.

¶What is Bopomofo input method?

We can type Chinese character with Bopomofo input method. For example, we have all of the Bopomofo symbols and tones on a normal keyboard, and can type a Chinese character by inputing the Bopomofo of it to the Bopomofo input method.

For example, this is how 你好 is typed under a Bopomofo input method. The Bopomofo would be converted to Chinese character when it’s finished with a tone, so you would not see the tone mark.

¶What is Bopomofo chord?

Since the Bopomofo of a Chinese character has at most one consonant, one medial and one rhyme, if they are at different key under a Bopomofo layout, the order of inputing them doesn’t matter. They can be input simultaneously^[1] in modern Bopomofo input method.

It’s called “聲韻並擊” in Chinese. Its literal translation is “typing the consonant (聲母) and the rhyme (韻母) simultaneously”. But I think “Bopomofo chord” is shorter and easier to understand for anyone who already know chorded input, especially for users of CharaChorder device.

For example, I can type ㄋㄧ and ㄏㄠ simultaneously for 你好. This is how Bopomofo chord works.

¶Preface

I received my first CC1 almost two years ago. (2022/09/13. I started to write this article on 2024/08/05.) I’ve spent much time on CC1, practicing typing and chording, finding solutions for using the Bopomofo input method to type Chinese, and finally working daily with CC1. Since the next device, M4G is coming soon, I think it’s a good time to write a review for CC1.

So in this article, I will review the benefits or drawbacks of CC1 under my near-two-year experiences with CC1, and some of them have been mentioned in my other articles.

¶Ergonomic Design

The first and most important thing about CC1 for me, is its ergonomic design. This is also the reason I chose CC1, and it perfectly meets my exceptions. It prevents the finger and wrist pains caused by my long-term bad typing habit on normal keyboards and my large usage of normal mice. Thanks to CC1, I can still do my full stack engineer job and write more useful program.

¶Configurability

To be honest, I completely forgot to consider typing Chinese, which is my native language, before buying CC1. I didn’t have any preparation for that and then took a good time to find, implement, and practice Bopomofo input solutions on CC1. Thanks to the configurability of layout on CC1, I could freely design both the device layout and the Bopomofo layout and came up with some effective layouts that work well for all of English typing, Chinese typing, and programming.

ℹ️ I have another article about my latest layout on CC1.

¶Chording

Chording is really a killer feature on CC1. The chord features are mainly designed for English. However, first, my speed of thought in English is too slow to use chords^[1]. Second, my daily usage of programming and typing Chinese is much more than typing English. Third, I use Bopomofo chords when typing Chinese on CC1 and they would conflict with CC1’s chords.

Due to the reasons above, I only have a few chords on CC1 for some frequently used words when programming and don’t have chords when typing English. But yes, it is already handy to use them during programming, and I keep finding for words that can be chorded during programming. This is the benefit that I receive from the chording feature of CC1.

¶Learning Curve

CC1 has a steep learning curve. As who wants to use CC1 to write English, Chinese and programs, it is even much steeper. But since I saw learning CC1 as an exercise or a hobby, practicing typing on CC1 has been a great pastime for me after work. Though it took me a long time (about 1 year and 3 months) until I could use CC1 full-time, it was both a great challenge and an interesting and unique experience in my life.

¶Thinking Outside-the-box

I would say that CC1 makes me think outside the box, not only on the keyboard and English typing but also on Chinese typing. While finding solutions for Bopomofo input methods on CC1, I studied many existing Bopomofo solutions and learned about Bopomofo chords. So meeting CC1 opened a new door for me to faster Chinese typing and more knowledge about Chinese typing. I think it is also possible to make other users rethink and explore new ways about their input methods and languages.

¶Mouse Replacement

Though the mouse movement feature on CC1 is not favorable by most users as far as I know, CC1 is my mouse replacement.

I’ve tried many mouse solutions so far and each of them caused some troubles for me. Normal mice have caused pain to my index fingers (P.S. I can use a mouse with either left or right hand) and wrists. The trackball reduces the movement of my wrists but with the cost of more finger movements, causing more pain to my fingers. The trackpad gets sticky after I use it for a while and I feel like the skin of my fingers is torn.

So finally I choose the mouse feature on CC1. Though it is slower than other solutions, I think it is better for my hands. But yes, if you need the speed, it is not a good choice for you.

¶Surprisingly matching with Bopomofo input method

Though it might be just a coincidence, I think that CC1 and Bopomofo input method are a match in heaven.

First, the design of CC1 makes the most of the chording nature of the Bopomofo input method. I can easily type the consonant, the medial, and the rhyme of a Chinese character at the same time on CC1 with my Bopomofo input method, and use only a chord (2~3 keys) and a keystroke (for tone) to type Chinese characters which Bopomofo have more than one symbols. (They require 3~4 keystrokes without chording.)

Second, each group in Bopomofo symbols has three or four symbols. It perfectly matches with the four-direction switches of CC1. Each group can be put on a switch to make the Bopomofo layout easily to be memorized.

Finally, the thing that slows down Chinese typing the most is doing the word selection. But on CC1, since the arrow keys are close to the home row, I only need to move a finger to reach them and do the word selection.

¶Summary

CC1’s ergonomic design really solves my hand problems. Its configurability and chording feature also help a lot in my use case. Moreover, it surprisingly matches my Chinese input method, the Bopomofo input method. Though it has a steep learning curve, learning CC1 and exploring new ways to type is a great experience in my life. It’s the most worthwhile purchase I’ve ever made.