Keyboard Support

Contact and Search

Keyman.com Homepage

Header bottom

Keyman.com

On this page

BJCreeUNI (East) Keyboard Help

Overview

This keyboard is designed for the East Cree syllabic script used in Northwestern Quebec, Canada. The keyboard has been developed to make it easy to type all of the symbols necessary for East Cree. This keyboard is fully compliant with the Unicode Standard.

Important Notice: The default for this keyboard is for characters to be composed. For example, this sequence "wa" would produce ᐗ (U+1417).

You can change the keyboard to produce decomposed characters in two ways. The preferred method is to use Keyman → Configuration.

  1. Using Keyman Configuration: On Windows or Linux, go to Keyman → Configuration → Keyboard Layouts → BJCreenUNI (east) → Keyboard Options and choose Decomposed. You may need to close and reopen your input application and keyboard, before the default behavior changes. This method will change your default to Decomposed and everytime you switch to this keyboard it will remain using the Decomposed style until you change it back to Composed style using Keyman configuration.
  2. Using RALT hotkeys (primarily needed for macOS): It is also possible to switch from Composed to Decomposed using the RALT HYPHEN sequence (RALT+-). Switch back to Composed using the RALT EQUAL sequence (RALT+=). This method will change to Decomposed during just this session of using the keyboard. After you stop using the keyboard it will return to Composed.

Basic Function

This keyboard is phonetic. The basic consonant+vowel syllabic characters are formed as a result of pressing the equivalent Latin letters. For example, type na to get , and type ni to get . Type the vowel a second time to get the dot over the character for "long" syllables: nii to get . For a consonant alone (finals) simply type the consonant not followed by a vowel: type niin to get ᓃᓐ. Finally, the "w" dot (mid-dot) is formed by typing the w key between the consonant and vowel: type nwa to get ᐧᓇ and nwaa to get ᐧᓈ.

On Screen Keyboard

The On Screen Keyboard view for this keyboard is simply a QWERTY US layout, since the keyboard equivalents are designed to match the Latin characters standard East Cree syllabic chart.

Fonts

This keyboard installs with the Unicode Aboriginal Syllabic font BJCree UNI, which offers full support for the characters in East Cree and other related languages.

Desktop Keyboard Layout

Typing Guide

This typing guide is based on the standard East Cree syllabic chart.

e i/ii o/oo a/aa finals
w ᐧᐁ ᐧᐃ ᐧᐅ ᐧᐊ
p
t
k
ch
m
n
s
sh
y
r
l
f
th
(h) (l) (r)

A dot in front of any character puts a "w" after the first letter, like this:
= ma, ᐧᒪ = mwa, ᐧᒫ = mwaa
= Christ, = . (period)

All Documentation Versions