Keypad and handheld electronic device

1. A keypad of a handheld electronic device comprising:

a plurality of keys, at least a first portion of the keys of said plurality of keys being arranged generally in a plurality of rows, each row of at least a portion of said plurality of rows comprising a plural quantity of keys of said plurality of keys;

each key of at least a second portion of the keys of said at least a first portion of the keys having a number of linguistic elements assigned thereto, each key of at least a third portion of the keys of said at least a second portion of the keys having a plurality of linguistic elements assigned thereto;

the plurality of rows comprising a first row, a second row, and a third row, the second row being disposed between the first row and the third row;

the second row comprising a second plurality of sequentially disposed keys of the plurality of keys, the linguistic elements assigned to the second plurality of sequentially disposed keys correspondingly sequentially comprising one of:

“A”, “SD”, “FG”, “HJ”, and “KL”;

“AS”, “D”, “FG”, “HJ”, and “KL”;

“AS”, “DF”, “G”, “HJ”, and “KL”;

“AS”, “DF”, “GH”, “J”, and “KL”; and

“AS”, “DF”, “GH”, “JK”, and “L”;

the third row comprising a third plurality of sequentially disposed keys of the plurality of keys, the linguistic elements assigned to the third plurality of seqentially disposed keys correspondingly sequentially comprising one of:

“ZX”, “C”, “VB”, and “NM”, with the next sequentially disposed key in the third row being a <FUNCTION> key;

“ZX”, “CV”, “B”, and “NM”, with the next sequentially disposed key in the third row being a <FUNCTION> key;

“Z”, “X”, “C”, “VB”, and “NM”;

“Z”, “X”, “CV”, “B”, and “NM”;

“Z”, “X”, “CV”, “BN”, and “M”;

“Z”, “XC”, “V”, “B”, and “NM”;

“Z”, “XC”, “V”, “BN”, and “M”;

“Z”, “XC”, “VB”, “N”, and “M”;

“ZX”, “C”, “V”, “B”, and “NM”;

“ZX”, “C”, “V”, “BN”, and “M”;

“ZX”, “C”, “VB”, “N”, and “M”;

“ZX”, “CV”, “B”, “N”, and “M”.

wherein said plurality of keys are arranged generally in a plurality of columns, each column of at least a portion of said plurality of columns comprising a plural quantity of keys of said plurality of keys;

the plurality of columns comprising a first column and a second column;

the first column comprising a first plurality of sequentially disposed keys of the plurality of keys, the linguistic elements assigned to the first plurality of sequentially disposed keys correspondingly sequentially comprising “Q”, “A”, and “Z”; and

the second column comprising a second plurality of sequentially disposed keys of the plurality of keys, the linguistic elements assigned to the second plurality of sequentially disposed keys correspondingly sequentially comprising “P”, “L”, and “M”.

2. The keypad of claim 1 wherein the first row comprises a first plurality of sequentially disposed keys of the plurality of keys, the linguistic elements assigned to the first plurality of sequentially disposed keys correspondingly sequentially comprising “QW”, “ER”, “TY”, “UI”, and “OP”.

3. A handheld electronic device comprising the keypad of claim 1 , and further comprising:

a processor apparatus including a processor and a memory;

an output apparatus;

the processor apparatus being adapted to receive input from the keypad and to provide output to the output apparatus;

the memory including a corpus of linguistic members and a number of routines stored therein, each linguistic member of at least a portion of the plurality of linguistic members comprising a number of the linguistic elements;

the plurality of routines comprising a disambiguation routine, responsive to an actuation by a user of a key from among the third portion of the keys, the disambiguation routine being adapted to output to the output apparatus a linguistic element from among the plural quantity of linguistic elements assigned to said key as a disambiguated interpretation of an intent of the user in the actuation of said key.