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I accidentally typed "zh" using the Japanese IME on macOS Sierra. Surprisingly, "zh" turned into a "←" character! Why does it do this? I would have expected it to produce just "zh", like it does with other two consecutive consonants: "kr" is "kr", "mn" is "mn". Why is "zh" a left arrow?

I did some guessing and thought that the "h" must stand for 左, that's why it's a left arrow and not a right one. Then I tried "zm", thinking that it would give me a right arrow because "m" stands for 右, it didn't.

I am so confused. What does "zh" stand for? Why a left arrow? How do I do a right one?

Note: the left arrow is U+2190 "LEFTWARDS ARROW"

Sweeper
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1 Answers1

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I can't tell you about the wherefore but that seems to be a shortcut associated with the letter z + hjkl-directional keys. Moreover this doesn't work with all IME (but it can be reproduced with Google IME, you can try that on Google Translate website)

                                           enter image description here

I dug a bit more and here a list of keys that goes with the z-mod key.

  • ZH   ←　（左矢印）
  • ZJ   ↓　（下矢印）
  • ZK   ↑　（上矢印）
  • ZL   →　（右矢印）
  • Z,（コンマ）   ‥　（二点リーダ）
  • Z.（ピリオド）   …　（三点リーダ）
  • Z/   ・　（中点）
  • Z[   『　（始め二重かぎ括弧）
  • Z]   』　（終わり二重かぎ括弧）
  • Z-   ～　（波ダッシュ）

Source

永劫回帰
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    That is fascinating. For those unfamiliar with it, the `hjkl` keys, aka 'Vi keys', are used in a bunch of oldschool software such as Vi-style text editors and roguelike text-mode games. I can confirm zh,zj,zk,zl also work in the Japanese Anthy input method on Linux. – melissa_boiko Jun 23 '17 at 10:38
  • Do you think Z stand for anything? – Sweeper Jun 23 '17 at 10:50
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    @Sweeper I don't have a clue. The only things I know is that `zh` (etc.) stands for scroll left in Vim so they may took the inspiration from that. – 永劫回帰 Jun 23 '17 at 10:58
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    うわ本当だ、全然知りませんでした！ – naruto Jun 23 '17 at 11:48
  • Wow, this really saves time. I'm (very) familiar with `hjkl` navigation and I've been inputting ←/→ by converting ＜ー/ー＞ and ↓/↑ by converting やじるし and selecting the correct arrow. Inputting … by hitting 「。」 thrice was really frustrating as well because my IME never remembered that I want to convert it to 「…」. – siikamiika Jun 23 '17 at 16:55
  • @siikamiika Though that doesn't work with my IME (Baidu IME) I am glad if it will serve you. As for ↑ and ↓ I usually type うえ and した. I would also be interested if someone as a shortcut for ≒. – 永劫回帰 Jun 23 '17 at 17:00
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    I've avoided うえ・した because I want to type 上・下 more often than their arrow symbol and on the other hand the actual arrows more often that spelling out "arrow symbol". As for ≒, it's behind ＝ in Mozc/Google IME along with ≠ but I can't test Baidu IME right now. You could probably edit your romaji table and add something like "z=" for ≒. – siikamiika Jun 23 '17 at 17:18
  • @siikamiika Indeed I did not think about adding them in the user dictionary. That's now done. Thanks – 永劫回帰 Jun 23 '17 at 18:03