Editing M-system

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[[File:NEC PC-8801-KI -- keys, LHS.jpg|250px|thumb|Left hand M-system key cluster on an [[NEC PC-8801-KI]] keyboard]]

The '''M-system''', '''M-type layout''' or '''M-shiki''' is an input system for Japanese, especially Kanji, based on the phonetic composition of Japanese words.

Unlike JIS it could be [[touch typing|touch-typed]] on a keyboard with three rows and five columns for each hand. The Shift keys were used for shifting between short and long phonetics.
Unlike the Nicola and TRON systems it was based not on Kana but on Romaji (spelling Japanese using Latin script) which made it more compact and so it did not require different left and right Shift keys.

It was developed by Morita Masasuke at [[NEC]], which introduced it in 1983 for the [[PC-8800]] series of personal computers.<ref name="ipsj" /> NEC's keyboards had either [[Staggering#Columnar layout|columnar layout]], [[Staggering#Symmetric staggering|symmetric staggering]] or even split [[Staggering#Matrix layout|matrix layout]].<ref name="impress" />

{|class="wikitable"
|'''Q''' E Ek 
|'''L''' U Uk 
|'''J''' I Ik 
|'''F''' A Ak 
|'''C''' O Ok
|'''@ " '''
|rowspan="3"|
|'''[ {'''
|'''M''' M My
|'''Y''' R Ry
|'''R''' Y
|'''W''' W
|'''P''' P Py
|-
|'''E''' e En
|'''U''' u Un
|'''I''' i In
|'''A''' a An
|'''O''' o On
|''' ' * '''
|'''] }'''
|'''K''' K Ky
|'''S''' S Sy
|'''T''' T Ty
|'''N''' N Ny
|'''H''' Hy
|-
|Ei Et
|'''X''' Un Ut
|'''V''' Ii It
|Ai At
|Ou Ot
|'''/ ?'''
|''', < '''
|'''G''' G Gy
|'''Z''' Z Zy
|'''D''' D
|'''. >''' h <!-- not sure that this is not supposed to be a Japanese sign that just looks a lot like a cursive 'h' -->
|'''B''' B By
|-
|}
(Romaji in bold.)

==External links==
* Esrille: [https://www.esrille.com/keyboard/layouts.ja-jp.html Japanese Key Layouts]
* DigiTech Labs: [http://www.d-tech.jp/research/m_keys.html 写真で見るＭ式キーボードの歴史] (History of M-type keyboard seen in photos)

==Forum threads==
* Deskthority—[https://deskthority.net/viewtopic.php?t=5212 NEC PC-9801-98-S02]. Posted by '''hasu''' on 2013-02-22.

==References==
<references>
<ref name="impress">PC Watch — [http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/article/20010313/ipsj.htm 写真で見る歴史的なコンピュータ。～「情報技術のエポック展」レポート] (Japanese only) Retrieved 2015-07-15.</ref>
<ref name="ipsj">IPSJ Computer Museum — [http://museum.ipsj.or.jp/en/computer/word/0027.html 【NEC】 Keyboard based on new input system (M system)].  Retrieved 2015-07-15.</ref>
</references>

[[Category:Keyboard layouts]]