Mising Keyboard Help
Mising Keyboard
This keyboard was specifically developed for the Mising community to provide a native digital voice. This layout replaces those generic English interfaces with a native-first design, allowing for natural, fluid communication in the Mising language without compromise. Technical Features MAK Orthography Support: Fully accommodates the standard Mising Agom Kébang (MAK) orthography (modified Roman script), ensuring all community standards are met. Linguistic Precision: Optimised for both everyday digital use and rigorous linguistic documentation. Data Integrity: Specifically engineered to prevent character fragmentation, ensuring clean data entry for building professional pronunciation dictionaries and annotating acoustic data. Intuitive Design: Built upon a familiar QWERTY foundation to maintain an easy learning curve for all users.
This keyboard uses a standard QWERTY base. All Roman letters remain in their normal positions. Four QWERTY keys not used in Mising Agom Kébang (MAK) orthography — Q, X, V, C — are reassigned to frequently occurring Mising phonemes. The original Latin letters q, x, v, c remain accessible via the AltGr (Right Alt) recovery layer.
Long vowels are entered with a dead key: press Semicolon (;) to activate length mode, then press the vowel. The semicolon itself is recovered via AltGr+;.
1.1 Consonants
Standard MAK consonants are typed directly — no modifier required.
| Output | Key | Description |
|---|---|---|
| p / P | p / Shift+P | Bilabial plosive (voiceless) |
| b / B | b / Shift+B | Bilabial plosive (voiced) |
| t / T | t / Shift+T | Alveolar plosive (voiceless) |
| d / D | d / Shift+D | Alveolar plosive (voiced) |
| k / K | k / Shift+K | Velar plosive (voiceless) |
| g / G | g / Shift+G | Velar plosive (voiced) |
| s / S | s / Shift+S | Alveolar fricative (voiceless) |
| j / J | j / Shift+J | Palatal affricate / approximant |
| m / M | m / Shift+M | Bilabial nasal |
| n / N | n / Shift+N | Alveolar nasal |
| r / R | r / Shift+R | Alveolar trill / flap |
| l / L | l / Shift+L | Alveolar lateral approximant |
| y / Y | y / Shift+Y | Palatal approximant |
| w / W | w / Shift+W | Labio-velar approximant |
| h / H | h / Shift+H | Glottal fricative |
| f / F | f / Shift+F | Labiodental fricative (loanwords) |
| z / Z | z / Shift+Z | Alveolar fricative voiced (loanwords) |
1.2 Digraph Consonants — Reassigned Keys (Q & X)
Two MAK digraph consonants are produced with a single keystroke.
| Output | Key | Phonetic value |
|---|---|---|
| ng | q | Velar nasal /ŋ/ — assigned to Q |
| Ng | Shift+Q | Capitalised velar nasal |
| ny | x | Palatal nasal /ɲ/ — assigned to X |
| Ny | Shift+X | Capitalised palatal nasal |
1.3 Short Vowels
Standard MAK vowels on natural QWERTY keys. Two Mising central vowels on V and C.
| Output | Key | IPA / Description |
|---|---|---|
| a / A | a / Shift+A | /a/ — open front unrounded |
| e / E | e / Shift+E | /e/ — close-mid front unrounded |
| i / I | i / Shift+I | /i/ — close front unrounded |
| o / O | o / Shift+O | /o/ — close-mid back rounded |
| u / U | u / Shift+U | /u/ — close back rounded |
| é / É | v / Shift+V | /ɜ/ — mid central vowel — assigned to V |
| í / Í | c / Shift+C | /ɨ/ — close central unrounded — assigned to C |
1.4 Long Vowels
Press Semicolon (;) first, then the vowel key. For uppercase long vowels, press Semicolon, then Shift+vowel.
| Output | Keystroke sequence | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| a: | ; → a | Long /a:/ |
| e: | ; → e | Long /e:/ |
| i: | ; → i | Long /i:/ |
| o: | ; → o | Long /o:/ |
| u: | ; → u | Long /u:/ |
| é: | ; → v | Long central /ɜ:/ |
| í: | ; → c | Long central /ɨ:/ |
| A: | ; → Shift+A | Long /a:/ uppercase |
| E: | ; → Shift+E | Long /e:/ uppercase |
| I: | ; → Shift+I | Long /i:/ uppercase |
| O: | ; → Shift+O | Long /o:/ uppercase |
| U: | ; → Shift+U | Long /u:/ uppercase |
| É: | ; → Shift+V | Long /ɜ:/ uppercase |
| Í: | ; → Shift+C | Long /ɨ:/ uppercase |
1.5 AltGr Recovery Layer
Hold Right Alt (AltGr) to recover the original Latin letters and semicolon/colon.
| Output | Keystroke | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| q / Q | AltGr+Q / AltGr+Shift+Q | Latin q (loanwords, linguistic notation) |
| x / X | AltGr+X / AltGr+Shift+X | Latin x |
| v / V | AltGr+V / AltGr+Shift+V | Latin v |
| c / C | AltGr+C / AltGr+Shift+C | Latin c |
| ; | AltGr+; | Semicolon (standard punctuation) |
| : | AltGr+Shift+; | Colon (not a length marker) |
1.6 Apostrophe / Glottal Stop Marker
| Output | Key | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ’ | ' (apostrophe key) | Smart right single quotation mark (U+2019) — used as glottal stop marker in MAK transcription |
1.7 Number Row and Standard Punctuation
All digits and punctuation follow the standard QWERTY layout without modification.
| Output | Key | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 – 0 | 1 – 0 | Digits |
| ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) | Shift + 1–0 | Standard shift-row symbols |
| - / _ | - / Shift+- | Hyphen / underscore |
| = / + | = / Shift+= | Equals / plus |
| [ { ] } | [ / Shift+[ ] / Shift+] | Brackets / braces |
| \ / | | \ / Shift+\ | Backslash / pipe |
| , / < | , / Shift+, | Comma / less-than |
| . / > | . / Shift+. | Full stop / greater-than |
| / / ? | / / Shift+/ | Forward slash / question mark |
| ` / ~ | ` / Shift+` | Grave accent / tilde |
The Mising touch keyboard has four layers: Default (lowercase), Shift (uppercase), Caps (caps lock), and Numeric. Long vowels are accessed by holding (long-pressing) the vowel key to reveal a subkey popup. The period key also carries a subkey strip for common punctuation.
● A small dot on a key in the diagrams below indicates that a long-press subkey is available.
2.1 Default Layer (Lowercase)
This is the layer shown when the keyboard first opens.
2.2 Shift Layer (Uppercase)
Active after one tap of ⇧ Shift. Tap ⇧ Shift again to enter Caps lock.
2.3 Numeric Layer
Activated by tapping 123. Tap abc to return to the Default layer.
2.4 Long-Vowel Subkeys (Hold / Long-Press)
On the Default layer, hold any vowel key to reveal its long form. On the Shift layer, the same applies for uppercase long vowels.
| Key | Tap → output | Hold → subkey | IPA (short / long) |
|---|---|---|---|
| e | e | e: | /e/ — /e:/ |
| u | u | u: | /u/ — /u:/ |
| i | i | i: | /i/ — /i:/ |
| o | o | o: | /o/ — /o:/ |
| a | a | a: | /a/ — /a:/ |
| í (C key) | í | í: | /ɨ/ — /ɨ:/ |
| é (V key) | é | é: | /ɜ/ — /ɜ:/ |
| E (Shift) | E | E: | /e:/ uppercase |
| U (Shift) | U | U: | /u:/ uppercase |
| I (Shift) | I | I: | /i:/ uppercase |
| O (Shift) | O | O: | /o:/ uppercase |
| A (Shift) | A | A: | /a:/ uppercase |
| Í (Shift) | Í | Í: | /ɨ:/ uppercase |
| É (Shift) | É | É: | /ɜ:/ uppercase |
2.5 Period Key Subkeys (Hold / Long-Press)
Hold the period key (.) on the Default or Shift layer to access these characters.
| Subkey output | Character name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| , | Comma | Standard comma |
| ! | Exclamation mark | Uses Shift layer |
| ? | Question mark | Uses Shift layer |
| ’ | Apostrophe | Smart right single quote / glottal stop marker (U+2019) |
| " | Double quote | Uses Shift layer |
| \ | Backslash | |
| : | Colon | Uses Shift layer |
| ; | Semicolon |
2.6 Bracket Key Subkeys (Numeric Layer)
Hold [ or ] on the Numeric layer for additional bracket characters.
| Hold key | Subkeys available |
|---|---|
| [ | « < { |
| ] | » > } |
2.7 Layer Navigation Summary
| Action | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Tap ⇧ Shift (on Default) | Switch to Shift layer | One more tap of Shift enters Caps lock |
| Tap ⇧ Shift (on Shift) | Switch to Caps layer | All letters uppercase; long vowels unavailable in Caps |
| Tap ⇧ Shift (on Caps) | Return to Default layer | |
| Tap 123 | Switch to Numeric layer | Available from all letter layers |
| Tap abc (on Numeric) | Return to Default layer | |
| Tap ☰ Menu | Open Keyman menu | Language switch, keyboard settings |
