Nigeria Underline (SIL) Keyboard Help

Overview

This keyboard pairs with two other keyboards to cover the expected needs of most of Nigeria's languages. The three keyboards are identical except that the vowels are treated differently. The vowels on this keyboard can have an underline below them as well as the standard tone markings. The keyboard also includes standard "hook" (implosives), nasality, tone, and the Naira sign.

Basic Function

This keyboard supports basic Latin characters on the standard keyboard. Other special keys are accessed through "deadkeys". These deadkeys are ; ' - ` ^ & ~ !.

If a deadkey is typed twice, it will produce its original value (if you type a semicolon two times you will get a semicolon). Type ' three times in order to get an apostrophe.

Deadkeys may be combined to get two combining marks. They may be combined in any order. For example:

The same result is achieved even when typed with the opposite sequence of deadkeys ('; instead of ;'). The following sequences are possible:

'; or ;' followed by the vowel (such as "o") will give ó̱

-; or ;- followed by the vowel (such as "o") will give ō̱

`; or ;` followed by the vowel (such as "o") will give ò̱

^; or ;^ followed by the vowel (such as "o") will give ô̱

&; or ;& followed by the vowel (such as "o") will give ǒ̱

!; or ;! followed by the vowel (such as "o") will give ő̱

~; or ;~ followed by the vowel (such as "o") will give õ̱

In order to achieve nasalization with tone, the following sequences must be typed in order:

~' followed by the vowel (such as "o") will give ṍ

~- followed by the vowel (such as "o") will give ȭ

~` followed by the vowel (such as "o") will give õ̀

~^ followed by the vowel (such as "o") will give õ̂

~& followed by the vowel (such as "o") will give õ̌

~! followed by the vowel (such as "o") will give õ̋

In order to achieve nasalization with tone on underlined vowels, the following sequences must be typed in order:

;~' followed by the vowel (such as "o") will give ṍ̱

;~- followed by the vowel (such as "o") will give ȭ̱

;~` followed by the vowel (such as "o") will give õ̱̀

;~^ followed by the vowel (such as "o") will give õ̱̂

;~& followed by the vowel (such as "o") will give õ̱̌

;~! followed by the vowel (such as "o") will give õ̱̋

There are other keyboards available for under dotted and odd vowels.

On Screen Keyboard

This keyboard includes an On Screen Keyboard view for easy reference. The On Screen Keyboard works best when associated with a QWERTY US layout.

Fonts

This is a Unicode keyboard and works with any Unicode font which has support for extended Latin characters. To find fonts on your computer which support the keyboard, use the Keyman Desktop Font Helper.