Patent ID: 7228267

Claim:
A computer-readable medium comprising a language data structure for use in converting Chinese Pinyin syllables stored on the computer-readable medium into Chinese Hanzi characters stored on the computer-readable medium, the data structure comprising: a plurality of Hanzi character candidate lists, each list comprising Hanzi character candidates associated with a Pinyin syllable, and each Hanzi character candidate in each list having an index in the list; and a plurality of language data records, each language data record corresponding to a word having a plurality of Pinyin syllables and comprising a key and a value, wherein the key in each language data record comprises a sequence of indexes and tone information for the Pinyin syllables of the word to which the language data record corresponds, and wherein the value in each language data record comprises a sequence of indexes of Hanzi character candidates, in the lists of candidates respectfully associated with the Pinyin syllables of the word, that represent the Pinyin syllables of the word.