Yiddish Pasekh Keyboard Help
Overview
This keyboard layout is designed to type Yiddish by transliteration.
This keyboard layout works best with a QWERTY (English) keyboard. It uses standard Unicode fonts. Many common Windows fonts support Yiddish, including Times New Roman and Arial. Use the Font Helper in Keyman Desktop to find more fonts that work with Yiddish.
This keyboard complies with Unicode 5.1
Desktop Keyboard Layout
Quickstart
Type Yiddish by transliteration: type ש (shin) with sh or אײַ (pasekh tsvey yudn) with ay.
You can use idle keys to speed up typing but you do not have to:
| Key | Alternate method | Yiddish | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| c | ts | ץ | From Eastern European orthographies |
| j | ey | ײ | The name of j rhymes with ey |
| w | sh | ש | Looks like |
| x | kh | ך | Phonetic symbol |
Khof, mem, nun, fey and tsadek are shaped automatically: they take their final forms at the end of words and their regular forms otherwise. Isolated final forms can be typed with shifted keys:
| Key | Yiddish | Note |
|---|---|---|
| [SHIFT]+[C] | ץ | Final tsadek |
| [SHIFT]+[X] | ך | Final khof |
Shtumer Alef is automatically inserted before ay, ey, i, oy, or u at the beginning of words. You can type a word-internal shtumer alef with [SHIFT]+[A]
Occasionally, you may need initial ay, ey, etc. without a shtumer alef, e.g. when you want to list the letters of the alefbeys. You can type them with the following key combinations:
| Key | Yiddish | Note |
|---|---|---|
| E | ײ | ey |
| I | י | i |
| J | ײ | ey (the name of J rhymes with ey) |
| O | ױ | oy |
| U | ו | u |
| Y | ײַ | ay (the name of Y rhymes with ay) |
| yi | ייִ | |
| iy | יִי | |
| Ei | ײיִ | |
| Ui | ויִ |
Hebrew-specific letters are typed with shifted keys, too:
| Key | Hebrew | Note |
|---|---|---|
| B | בֿ | veys |
| H | ח | khes |
| K | כּ | kof (Hebrew kaf) |
| S | ת | sof |
| T | תּ | tof |
| W | שׂ | sin |
Geresh is typed with [SHIFT]+[G] and curly double quotes are typed with the q key. The opening quotation mark is low if Q is unshifted and high if shifted.
The backslash (\) key functions as a temporary place holder to separate letters or parts of compound words. Type s\h to output סה (samekh hey) instead of ש (shin), or type ge\aylt to insert a shtumer alef between the ayen and the pasekh tsvey yudn.
The hyphen (-) key outputs a makef after a Yiddish letter and a hyphen otherwise. If, for some reason, you need a hyphen after a Yiddish letter, press the hyphen key twice.
A hyphen after a hyphen turns the hyphen into an en dash.
A hyphen after an en dash turns the en dash into an em dash.
A geresh after a geresh turns the geresh into gershayim.
© 2002-2019 Gyula Zsigri.
All Documentation Versions
- Yiddish Pasekh Keyboard Help 2.0.1
- Yiddish Pasekh Keyboard Help 2.0
- Yiddish Pasekh Keyboard Help 1.9
- Yiddish Pasekh Keyboard Help 1.8
