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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"

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  • I think this question may suit more on Ask different or somewhere.
    – broccoli facemask
    Jun 25, 2017 at 4:05

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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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

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  • 2
    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, 2017 at 10:38
  • Do you think Z stand for anything?
    – Sweeper
    Jun 23, 2017 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, 2017 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, 2017 at 11:48
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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, 2017 at 17:18

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