How to type zero initial in the common Shuangpin Pinyin keyboard layouts?

Question

Over the past few days I've gotten used to the Shuangpin layout. 自然码 to be specific, and I found it to be pretty good. But now I've come across a situation, where I don't know how to type it. And after taking a look at all the different Shuangpin layouts, it seems to me, they all share this property:

They don't have a key for the "zero initial"! So how do you type words like 昂 (ang), or 恩 (en)?

I'm specifically looking for the Ziranma layout, but I'd be interested in a general answer as well.

Answer 1

For 安, and other characters without initial consonant

Try oj, ;(semicolon)j, or '(quote)j,

If it still does not work, try jj.

The problem is input-method program may not follow the spec.

Shuangpin has 3 way to handle zero initial:

1 Use a fixed key (one of the a, e, i, o, u, and v) to denote the initial. e.g. Microsoft shuangpin

2 Use the initial of vowels as zero-initial, e.g. 拼音加加

3 This type is a little complicated, it is identical with type 2, except that for character has 2-pinyin character, it will down to 全拼. The famous 小鹤双拼 is this type.

Answer 2

The Chinese Wikipedia page https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8F%8C%E6%8B%BC list three different strategies for handling zero initials in 双拼:

零声母方案：指全拼中无声母的音节在双拼中的处理方案，即全拼中有几个音节没有声母，双拼中需要把这个零声母实质化，于是就有了零声母方案。

1. 固定一个字母做零声母 + 韵母所在键，如微软双拼、智能ABC、紫光双拼
2. 以韵母首字母为零声母 + 韵母所在键，如拼音加加(注：拼音加加实际上兼容两种零声母方案。)
3. 单韵母、三韵母为韵母首字母 + 韵母所在键，双韵母为韵母首字母 + 韵母末字母，如自然码、小鹤双拼

Which are:

1. Use a fixed letter + final (Microsoft, 智能 ABC, 紫光)
2. Use the first letter of the final + final (拼音加加)
3. Use the original form of two-letter finals. For others, use the first letter of the final + final. (自然码, 小鹤双拼)

For 'ang', 1. would be some fixed letter + the letter for 'ang'. 2) would be 'a' + the letter for 'ang' 3) would be 'a' + the letter for 'ang'

2 and 3 differ when the final contains two letters. For example, 'an' would be 'a' + 'n' in 3, but 'a' + (the letter for 'an') in 2.

Answer 3

Googling for "shuangpin 昂" etc produces lots of result. For example https://www.zhihu.com/question/51271188 or http://flypy.com/pin.html (not sure they are about your specific layout, I don't use 双拼).

It looks like you simply type the "initial" vowel separately. "a ang" ah for 昂 ang. Possibly slightly different for two and three-letter pinyin 汉子 (see the second link), but that could be layout specific.