Western Abenaki/Keyboard

Keyboard Layout for Western Abenaki

Existing Resources

• Language Geek Wôbanakiôdwawôgan keyboard layout
  • Offers multiple options for /ɔ̃/, notably excluding "8" as a possible representation.
  • This keyboard seems to be the only keyboard layout out there. The multiple /ɔ̃/ options are nice, but somewhat overkill and do not need to be mapped to their own keys.
  • Essentially a QWERTY layout with some Abenaki specific characters attached on the outsides. While this is not a particularly anticolonial design, it is highly likely that any user of this keyboard will be fluent in English as the community of native Western Abenaki speakers is essentially nonexistent.

Our Layout

~
`

!
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

Ȣ
ȣ

P
p

{
[

}
]

|
\

        

A
a

S
s

D
d

F
f

G
g

H
h

J
j

K
k

L
l

:
;

"
'

           

Z
z

X
x

C
c

V
v

B
b

N
n

M
m

<
,

>
.

?
/

Justification

The only change we made to the typical QWERTY Latin keyboard was the addition of symbols to represent /ɔ̃/. This is largely based on the above Language Geek design. Out of observed representations "o̱" "ȣ" "ô" and "8," "ȣ" and "ô" are the two most common and most authentic to actual use cases. Those are the two symbols we chose to feature in our keyboard: the "ȣ" as the AltGr of "o" and the "ô" via a dead key for the circumflex diacritic. These decisions were made for the sake of elegance and simplicity, while also allowing for possibilty of full use of this keyboard to type English. "O" is a character on its own, without any diacritics, in both languages, so using a dead key was the easiest way to allow both versions. The "ȣ" was placed on the AltGr of "o" because they are often associated sounds across the literature.

Installation Instructions

To install this keyboard layout:

• Download the layout.
• Move it into ~/.m17n.d/
• Enable your layout through IBus.
  • IBus may need to be restarted in order for the new layout to appear.
• Search for the keyboard by language name, ISO code abe, or under "Other."

Licensing

The keyboard our layout is based on is licensed under a GNU General Public License, meaning it is essentially free to use, copy, and share.

Our keyboard design itself is licensed under the same license.