Mixe/Keyboard

TO DO:

• add authors page to repository
• add install file in repository
• add READ ME (added some compose combinations to keyboard, included diacritics most common in other varieties of Mixe) file in repository

Developed Totontepec Mixe keyboard layout

Working layout:

Ꞌ
ꞌ

!
1

|

 

"
2

@

.
3

#

$
4

˜

%
5

&
6

/
7

(
8

)
9

=
0

?
'

¿
¡

       

Q
q

 

W
w

E
e

R
r

T
t

Y
y

U
u

I
i

O
o

P
p

ˆ
`

[

*
+

]

        

A
a

S
s

D
d

F
f

G
g

H
h

J
j

K
k

L
l

Ñ
ñ

◌́
◌̈

{

msc
◌̱

}

           

>
<

Z
z

X
x

C
c

V
v

B
b

N
n

M
m

;
,

:
.

_
-

Combinations of inputs that result in other inputs include the following:

• ¨ a = ä
• ¨ e = ë
• ¨ o = ö
• ¨ u = ü
• ` a = à
• ` e = è
• ` i = ì
• ` o = ò
• ` u = ù
• ◌̱ a = a̱
• ◌̱ e = e̱
• ◌̱ o = o̱
• ◌̱ u = u̱
• msc i = ɨ
• msc I = Ɨ
• msc o = ø
• msc O = Ø

Justifications

Our layout is a modified version of the international Spanish keyboard layout. Most speakers of Mixe also speak Spanish, and are thus likely familiar with the Spanish layout. Further, many of the same diacritics are used in both Mixe and Spanish. In building off of the Spanish layout, we hope to preserve some user familiarity in using the Mixe layout.

Most varieties of Mixe have 9 (or thereabouts) vowels. The vowels most similar to Spanish vowels are written with the same characters (e.g. /a/ is written 'a' in both Spanish and Mixe). The unique vowels are written in a few different ways, depending on the specific variety of Mixe being written, and almost all are combinations of a, e, i, o, u and diacritics. The characters most commonly used (when considering all Mixean orthographies) are those formed with ◌̈ (ä, ë, ö, ü) and with ◌̱ (a̱,e̱,o̱,u̱). As such, we have replaced the ç, Ç key with a dead key for ◌̱ and swapped the placement of the ◌̈ and ◌́ deadkeys. We've given ◌̱, rather than ◌̈, its own key, because it is the more commonly used diacritic in Totontepec Mixe, which is the specific variety we are working with. We feel justified in replacing the ç key since ç doesn't appear in Mixe writing, as far as we can tell.

-ø and i-bar (used for writing other varieties)

We made the top-most, left-most key a lower and upper case saltillo. In Totontepec orthography, the saltillo and apostrophe are both used for writing phonemic glottal stops, which are numerous in Mixe. At this point, we're not sure which is more commonly used, or if the distinction matters for Totontepec, so we opted to include both in our layout.

Existing resources

• 2010 Carmen Janey Orthography Design for Chuxnaban Mixe
• John Benjamins 2003 The story of ö,