Windows Mobile 6.5 Predictive Typing Dictionaries

Windows Mobile 6.5 natively included predictive text input—predominantly powered by the Tegic XT9 engine—to accelerate typing on hardware keyboards and software input panels (SIP). While base installations typically provided standard regional packages like US or UK English, users could significantly expand text prediction by installing localized language database files (.ldb) or third-party input suites. This article details the specific language dictionaries that could be added to Windows Mobile 6.5, how the engine utilized them, and the available third-party keyboard alternatives.

Western European and Americas Dictionaries

The core XT9 engine offered robust support for Romance and Germanic languages, allowing predictive corrections, accents, and auto-completion:

  • Spanish: Available in both Modern Spanish (Spain) and Latin American variations.
  • French: Available in French (Standard) and Canadian French.
  • Portuguese: Available in Iberian Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese.
  • German: Included compound word prediction and umlaut auto-correction.
  • Italian, Dutch, and Flemish: Fully supported with base dictionary files.

Northern and Eastern European Dictionaries

Expanding to Eastern Europe and the Nordic region required specific character mapping along with the dictionary files:

  • Nordic Languages: Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish.
  • Slavic and Eastern European Languages: Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Slovak, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Russian (Cyrillic support).
  • Southern European: Greek and Turkish (requiring regional font and character tables to display properly).

Asian and Middle Eastern Languages (IME-Based)

Languages requiring complex script support or phonetic-to-character input relied on customized input method editors (IMEs) bundled with language databases:

  • East Asian Languages: Simplified Chinese (Pinyin and Stroke), Traditional Chinese (Zhuyin/Bopomofo and Cangjie), Japanese (Kana and Romaji to Kanji conversion), and Korean (Hangul).
  • Middle Eastern Languages: Arabic, Hebrew, and Farsi. These required bidirectional text rendering alongside specific XT9 dictionaries to properly predict right-to-left scripts.

Implementation Methods

Adding these dictionaries to Windows Mobile 6.5 was generally handled through three methods:

  1. XT9 .ldb File Injection: Users extracted .ldb (Language Data Base) files corresponding to language codes (such as ET9CEnls.ldb for English or ET9CFnls.ldb for French) and copied them directly to the \Windows directory. Registry entries under HKLM\Software\Tegic\eT9 were then modified to point to the active language.
  2. OEM CAB Packages: Manufacturers like HTC, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson packaged multi-language keyboards (such as HTC EZ Input) as standalone .cab installers. Installing the specific language CAB automatically registered the dictionary and updated the keyboard interface.
  3. Third-Party Keyboards: When system-level XT9 files were unavailable, users installed alternative keyboard engines with separate downloadable dictionary packs. Popular options included:
    • Resco Keyboard: Supported over 20 localized dictionary packs.
    • SPB Keyboard: Featured quick-switching between multi-language prediction databases.
    • SlideIT / ShapeWriter: Provided gesture-based prediction with localized lexicon add-ons.