Bukawa Unicode Keyboard

 

This keyboard is for use with Tavultesoft Keyman Desktop, and should function on both Windows keyboards as well as Mac keyboards running Windows under an emulator.  It was originally developed for Mac running Windows, and used OPTION+key combinations to output the special characters for the Bukawa language.  However, because the Option and Control keys on Windows computers are somewhat different to Mac keyboards it has been revised so that the sequence used is ‘[‘+key (left square bracket + key) to output the same characters.

 

Windows users should use just the deadkey ‘[‘

Mac users can use either the deadkey ‘[‘ or the OPTION key.

(For Mac users running on Mac only, I suggest developing a keyboard using the program Ukelele: http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=ukelele
Please contact the author if you would like further information or a Bukawa keyboard for use with Ukelele.)

 

The following table shows the special characters for Bukawa and how they are keyed:

 

BUKAWA CHARACTER	WINDOWS KEYBOARD	MAC KEYBOARD
ŋ	[ + j	OPT + j or [ + j
Ŋ	[ + J	OPT + J or [ + J
ê	[ + e [ + f	OPT + e or [ + e OPT + f or [ + f
Ê	[ + E [ + F	OPT + E or [ + E OPT + F or [ + F
ô	[ + o	OPT + o or [ + o
Ô	[ + O	OPT + O or [ + O
ö	[ + q	OPT + q or [ + q
Ö	[ + Q	OPT + Q or [ + Q
́  (high tone on vowels)*	[ + h	OPT + h of [ + h
̀̀  (low tone on vowels)*	[ + l	OPT + l or [ + l

 

* NOTE: to add a tone marker to a vowel,  key in the marker first (eg [ + h or OPT + h) then the vowel.  With most Unicode fonts the tone marker will distinguish between normal vowels and vowels with the circumflex marker or umlaut and position itself appropriately.

Note also that if the user wants to key the square bracket itself then keying it twice overrides the deadkey function and pruduces a square bracket.

 

The author can be contacted at the following address:

 

W Eckermann
c/- LBTA
139 Archer Street
NORTH ADELAIDE
Sth Australia 5006