Wichita/Keyboard
Layout
`
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
-
=
q
◌́
w
e
é
r
t
y
u
i
í
o
ó
p
[
]
\
a
á
s
d
ˀ
f
ː
g
h
j
k
l
;
'
z
x
c
v
b
n
m
,
.
/
Justification
We decided to utilize the existing English keyboard to develop this one, given that Wichita uses mostly the same alphabet as English and the linguistic community consists largely of English speakers. For this reason, it is also convenient to be able to type in English and Wichita on the same keyboard. In addition, although Wichita does not usually use Arabic numerals, we used them on our keyboard so the community could use a shorthand option they are likely used to, regardless. A dollar sign was included because the Wichita community is largely American as well. We included all accented letters used in Wichita (á, é, í, ó), as well as a deadkey that allows for the addition of an accent to produce these letters as well. This offers two options for typing accented letters for ease of use. Finally, we included the characters "ˀ" and "ː", as they are used in certain orthographies of Wichita, so making them available provides users with the ability to type Wichita in this alternate orthography if they so choose. We also decided to place these characters on the middle row of the keyboard, as these are commonly used in writing, so this would be an easily accessible area of the keyboard. Placing them in the middle of the middle row also ensured they are a good distance away from "?" and ":", characters that are similar and also used in Wichita and English, as to prevent confusion and grammatical errors.
Existing Resources
There are no existing keyboards of Wichita, nor could we find any easily accessible keyboards in related languages. There seems to be a keyboard for Arikara, which is a Caddoan language just like Wichita, however the link to download this keyboard leads to "page not found" (linked below).
https://arikara.org/#1502466563623-8a41c13c-f778
Installation
1. Ensure IBus is installed and running on a GNU/Linux system.
2. Copy the wic.mim file to ~/.m17n.d/
3. Restart IBus:
Right-click the IBus icon in the system tray and select "Restart", or run IBus restart.
4. Enable the layout:
Right-click the IBus icon, then Preferences, Input Method, Add, Other, and select the Wichita layout.
The layout file and source are available at the ling073-wic-keyboard repository.
https://github.swarthmore.edu/Ling073-sp26/ling073-wic-keyboard
Licensing
This keyboard utilizes an MIT License:
Copyright (c) 2026 Veronica Komorek & Hayes Gilbert
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.,
