IPA Keyboard

I use the International Phonetic Alphabet a lot, study historical linguistics, and create conlags, so I designed a keyboard layout that would allow me to type almost every Latin Unicode character, as well as a variety of other characters that interested me.

For an idea of what 'almost every Latin Unicode character' means:

• this keyboard can type over 50 diacritics (accent marks)
• it can rotate and flip any character that has a rotated/flipped Unicode counterpart, as well as replace them with smallcaps, supersript, and subscript versions
• it can type most medieval ligatures and characters (though my research hasn't always been good enough to provide the most natural ways to do so)
• it covers the whole IPA, of course, as well as historical symbols, extIPA, and uppercase forms when available
• it can type any modern or historical click character available in Unicode (still waiting for Doke orthography support >:( )
• it allows you to type Greek and Cyrillic characters (though it prioritizes IPA variants and isn't really streamlined for writing the language)
• it allows you to transliterate Sanskrit, Ancient Egyptian, Chinese dialects, etc. that use discipline-specific characters/diacritics
• it lets you add bars, tildes, slashes and curls to any character that has a matching Unicode counterpart
• it can type most proofing and punctuation marks, modifier characters, as well as alchemical, astrological, and gender/orientation symbols
• and much more

For more detailed documentation of what this keyboard supports, and how to use it, here's my Guide

Because it's designed to work for a LOT of characters, this keyboard is rarely going to be the simplest way to type a specific one. There are definitely IPA-only keyboards that will be more efficient for typing just IPA. And this keyboard isn't a font. There will be characters that don't show up - I've yet to find one that supports the entire range of characters this keyboard allows. Doulos SIL is my suggested font, especially if you use a lot of diacritics, but you might want to look around to find the one that supports you best.

But it's a powerful tool if you want to be able to switch between multiple transliteration and transcription systems in the same document, explore characters to use for non-human sounds, discuss the history of transcribing language, or quickly type special characters without opening 'insert symbols' dialogue boxes.

This is a Keyman keyboard. You'll need to install Keyman before being able to use it. Keyman is a free program with some amazing keyboards, and a lot of supports for people designing them for underserved languages. I've been really happy with it for almost a decade, now.

Download IPA Keyboard.kmp

For ideas about what else I could add, or suggestions for better key combos for specific characters, please contact me at kiragecko at gmail.com

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