"Shanghai Dialect Input Method" is officially released for free download

After two years of effort, Professor Qian Nairong of the Chinese Department of Shanghai University and his postgraduate students and partners finally completed the creation of a Shanghainese input method this month. It is now available for free download at: please click here. Notably, this input method includes two versions: "Zhong Pai" and "Xin Pai," allowing Shanghainese people over 45 years old and younger generations to find their preferred typing methods.

Since the pronunciation of Shanghainese differs from Mandarin, it still requires instructions for the phonetic spelling methods. For example, characters with identical initial and final sounds as in Mandarin use the Mandarin pinyin in the Shanghainese input method, while different ones adopt the Shanghainese input method's spelling. For instance, "chen" (time) in "chen guang" (time) and "tou" (head) in "hua tou" (playful) are pronounced as voiced sounds; therefore, an additional letter "h" needs to be added to the initial consonant in the Shanghainese pinyin input method, forming "shen" and "dhou." For all checked syllables (entering tones), the letter "k" is added after the pinyin, such as "bhek" for "bai" (play) in "bai xiang" (to play).