Nivkh/Keyboard

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Nivkh Keyboard Layout

Ё
ё
]
[
!
1
}
{
"
2
@
«

3
#
»
;
4

%
5
$
:
6
¬
^
?
7

&
*
8

°
(
9
·
ª
)
0
~
`
_
-

/
+
=
±
       
Й
й
Ј
ј
Ӈ
ӈ
Ц
ц
У
у
Ќ
ќ
К
к
Ӄ
ӄ
Е
е
®
Н
н
Њ
њ
Г
г
Ӷ
ӷ
Ғ
ғ
Ӻ
ӻ
Ш
ш
Щ
щ
З
з
Ў
ў
Х
х
Ӽ
ӽ
Ъ
ъ
Ж
ж
|
\
Ѕ
ѕ
        
Ф
ф

ƒ
Ы
ы
Џ
џ
В
в
Ћ
ћ
А
а
Ү
ү
П
п
Ѓ
ѓ
Р
р
Р̌
р̌
О
о
Ө
ө
Л
л
Љ
љ
Д
д

÷
Ӿ
ӿ

Э
э
Ә
ә
           
Я
я
Ђ
ђ
Ч
ч
Ѣ
ѣ
C
с

©
М
м
¥
µ
И
и
І
і
Т
т
Ӏ
Ь
ь
Һ
һ

ʼ
Б
б
Ю
ю
<
,
.
>
   ёЁ 1! 2\" 3№ 4; 5% 6: 7? 8* 9( 0) -_ =+
    Й  ӇЦ  У  КӃ  Е  Н  ӶГ  ҒӺ  ШЩ  З  ХӼ  ЬЪ
     Ф  Ы  В  А  П  РР̌  О  Л  Д  Ж  Э \\|
      Я  Ч  С  М  И  Т  Ӿ  \ʼ—Б  Ю  .,

Existing Resources

  • Android Nivkh keyboard [1]
  • Nivkh keyboard (2001) All rights reserved [2]
  • Nivkh keyboard layout by Professor Washington. GNU General Public License v3.0. [3]

The Nivkh keyboard for Android included above, as far as I can tell (lacking any Android devices to install the app onto), allows the user to type <Ӽӽ> by (I presume, having never used an Android device) pressing the <Хх> key and selecting <Ӽӽ>. Similarly, <Р̌р̌> appears over the <Рр> key. This method seems roughly analogous to the method we employed, which uses an AltGr key to create 3rd- and 4th-level characters.

Likewise, the 2001 keyboard for Windows 95/98/ME uses the AltGr key to produce the non-Russian Cyrillic letters. The difference between these first two keyboards and ours is that we made a few of the non-Russian characters primary (1st- and 2nd-level); for instance, instead of putting <Ӈӈ> in the 3rd and 4th levels of the key for <Нн>, we put them in the 1st and 2nd levels of the key for <Цц>, because <Цц> is not used in native Nivkh words (and is relatively uncommon in Russian words, thus seldom appearing in Russian borrowings), whereas <Ӈӈ> is a common letter in native Nivkh words. We decided that "misplacing" a few common letters is better than forcing the user to use AltGr to access them.

Jonathan Washington's 2017 Nivkh keyboard differs greatly from ours and the other two, as it uses various key combinations to produce the non-Russian letters of Nivkh; for example, typing <рш> yields <р̌>. This keyboard has the advantage of not needing an AltGr key, but the disadvantage of requiring two consecutive key strokes (or three in the case of <Ӻӻ>) for the special letters, as opposed to the two simultaneous key depressions that out keyboard uses.

Justification

We based our Nivkh keyboard on the existing Russian keyboard, figuring that most Nivkhi would already be familiar with the Russian layout, as it is the one most widely used in Russia. The most significant changes that we made involved adding the several non-Russian letters that exist in Nivkh.

We replaced <Цц> with <Ӈӈ> because the former is only used in Russian loans, and even in Russian is relatively uncommon, whereas the latter is common in native words. We decided that it would be better to make <Ӈӈ> more accessible by putting it in the first and second levels of a key, than to place it more "logically" or systematically by putting it with <Нн>, but in the third and fourth levels.

<Ӄӄ> we added in the third and fourth (AltGr) levels of the <Кк> key, as there was not another available and more-or-less centrally located key with a letter uncommon in Nivkh that we could make it primary on.

With the <g> keys <Ӷӷ Гг Ғғ Ӻӻ> we decided not to put the most basic form <Гг> as the primary letter on what is the Russian <Гг> key; instead, we made <Ӷӷ> primary (first and second level) and <Гг> secondary (third and fourth level), because, according to our analysis of the first 10 chapters of the Bible in Nivkh, <Гг> is significantly less frequent than <Ӷӷ>. Also, <Ӻӻ> is less frequent than <Ғғ>, so that, too, is secondary. Although this decision leads to a less systematic system, it would also lead to increased ease and accessibility for users. Because we added two more <Гг>-based characters, we had to put <Шш> and <Щщ> together on one key, with <Шш>, the more frequent, primary.

We made <Ӽӽ> secondary to <Хх> while <Ӿӿ> was made primary because <Ӿӿ> is more frequent (in our small sample) than <Ӽӽ>. We made room for <Ӿӿ> by putting the hard sign and soft sign together. Ostensibly, both signs are used only in Russian borrowings, and the hard sign rarely occurs, so it is only accessible with AltGr.

<Р̌р̌> was placed with <Рр> for simplicity and because no other key jumped out as a good place for it.

Finally, we made <Бб> secondary to the apostrophe <'> (with an em-dash <—> at level 2) because <Бб>, from what we can tell based on the data we have, is only used in loanwords, whereas the apostrophe is used in many native words to represent aspirated voiceless stops. We didn't want to add separate keys for each aspirated stop, since they are all easily composed from an existing letter plus the apostrophe, and we also didn't want the apostrophe to be accessible only by pressing AltGr or Shift, so it was made primary to facilitate the writing of native words that use it.

The remaining level 3 and level 4 characters were taken from both the Russian and English keyboards with the addition of several other Cyrillic letters and a few further characters (such as the yen/yuan symbol) that we thought would be the most likely to be useful for someone in the community or region.

Repository

Nivkh Keyboard Github Repository

Installation

Set up and enable IBus

1) Install IBus and the m17n module sudo apt-get install ibus-m17n .

2) Enable Ibus as your default input method im-config -n ibus .

3) Get languge switcher icon to appear on panel

  1. Restart X11 using xfwm4 --replace & xfce4-panel -r & or
  2. Restart computer or
  3. Right click on the edge of the panel, click "Add new items", and add "notification area".

Add niv-keyboard to m17n environment

4) Clone this repo git clone git@github.swarthmore.edu:Ling073-sp19/ling073-niv-keyboard.git.

5) Copy niv.mim and place it in ~/.m17n.d/.

6) Right click on IBus icon (language switcher icon) and click "restart".

Enabling AltGr and keyboard

7) Go to keyboard settings and enable AltGr.

  • You can also do this by adding a layout such as "English (international AltGr deadkeys)".

8) Right click the IBus icon and click preferences.

9) Go to Input Method and click Add.

10) Click the "..." and search and select "Other".

11) Select the option that says "niv-kbd" and click add.

12) You can now use the Nivkh keyboard by toggling to it.

License

GNU General Public License v3.0 [4]