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Keyboards for: Cree, Ojibway, Oji-Cree, and Naskapi

There are two types of Syllabics keyboards on this site:

  • One-key, one-character. With one keystroke, one syllabic character appears, be it a full syllabic: like ᒧ,ᔦ, and ᒐ, or a final: like ᐤ, ᐨ, or ᐦ. Combining symbols, e.g. the mid-dot ᐧ, are typed separately. 
  • Type in Roman. This follows the principle of typing finals and vowels separately. This is different from the first type of keyboard. To type ᐃ, simply use the 'i' key, and ᑫ is generated by the sequence 'k' + 'e'.

Both systems have their advantages and disadvantages. The former takes some training to learn, but once your fingers know the keys, it’s certainly faster. The latter is simpler for the casual user, as the Roman orthography physically printed on the keyboard is a mnemonic device to remember the corresponding syllabic.

There is a lot of orthographical variation amongst Cree and Ojibway communities concerning w-dot placement and the forms of the finals. This is all taken account of in the specific keyboards. For more details, see the keyboard maps for each language.

However, there are also stylistic differences. Some writers may prefer a certain placement of final, e.g. the final /w/ or /ch/ to be in the middle of the line instead of on top. Thus the Cree words for "road" and "soon", ᒣᐢᑲᓇᐤ ᐑᐸᐨ with top line finals and their mid-line final versions ᒣᐢᑲᓇ ᐑᐸ. The shape of the syllabic may also have various forms. These stylistic differences can be compared to Latin minuscule ‘a’ and ‘g’, which can also look like ‘ɑ’ and ‘ɡ’. Speakers of most languages using the Roman Alphabet would not treat these as different letters, although graphically they are quite distinct. Same goes for most Syllabics languages. As these are stylistic variants, if you prefer one kind of final to another, you should look for a font which contains the style of character you desire.

Keyman Installer Instructions

Mac Installer Instructions

 

The syllabics keyboards for Windows provided on this site are used with Keyman from Tavultesoft. This program will be installed along with some Unicode fonts by clicking on a link below. Mac users will have to install fonts separately, but Keyman is not required on Macs.

 

Note: These keyboards are for Unicode fonts only, and even so, some languages use symbols do not appear in the Unicode standard. The keyboards try to follow Unicode completely, but some languages have problems displaying some characters properly, if at all. See the “Important Notes” link for each keyboard for more information.

Mac Installer Instructions

Keyman Installer Instructions

Keyboard Maps and Downloads

Cree Keyboards: Mac Download — Windows (Keyman) Download

ᐄᔨᔫ ᐊᔨᒨᓐ, ᐄᓅ ᐊᔨᒨᓐ, ᐃᓕᓖᒧᐎᓐ Cree, Eastern: Includes East Cree (Quebec), Moose Cree (Ontario). Important notes Keymap
ᐃᓂᓂᒧᐎᐣ Cree, Central: Includes Omushkego Cree (Ontario). Important notes Keymap
ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐏᐏᐣ Cree, Western: Includes all in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Northwest Territories. Important Notes Keymap

Ojibwa Keyboards: Mac Download — Windows (Keyman) Download

ᐊᓂᔑᓇᐯᒧᐎ i-finals, left-side w-dot Important notes Keymap
ᐊᓂᔑᓇᐯᒧᐏ i-finals, right-side w-dot Important notes Keymap
ᐊᓂᔑᓇᐯᒧᐎᓐ a-finals, left-side w-dot Important notes Keymap
ᐊᓂᔑᓇᐯᒧᐏᓐ a-finals, right-side w-dot Important notes Keymap
ᐊᓂᔑᓇᐯᒧᐎᐣ western-finals, left-side w-dot Important notes Keymap
ᐊᓂᔑᓇᐯᒧᐏᐣ western-finals, right-side w-dot Important notes Keymap

Oji-Cree: Mac Download — Windows (Keyman) Download

ᐊᓂᔑᓂᓂᒧᐎᐣ left-side w-dot Important notes Keymap
ᐊᓂᔑᓂᓂᒧᐏᐣ right-side w-dot Important notes Keymap
ᔭᓂᓯᓂᓂᒧᐏᐣ Finals ‘k’ + ‘p’ ", right-side w-dot Important notes Keymap

Naskapi: Mac Download — Windows (Keyman) Download

ᐃᔪᐤ ᐊᔨᒧᐅᓐ Naskapi Keymap

One key—one character: Mac Download — Windows (Keyman) Download.
Keymap

Keyboard Usage Instructions

  1. To produce a syllabic, type in the correct final + vowel, or if it is one of the vowel symbols, no final is required.
    • To get the Plains Cree word ᐃᔨᓂᐤ, type in i-y-i-n-i-w. The process on your keyboard or screen would look like this: ᐃ ᕀ ᐃ ᐣ ᐃ ᐤ. Each time a vowel follows a final, they are merged into a syllabic automatically.
  2. To get the long vowel “dot”, use the semi-colon ; key after the syllabic has been formed.
    • ᑖᓂᓯ, is typed: t-a-;-n-i-s-i (ᐟ ᐊ ˙ ᐣ ᐃ ᐢ ᐃ).
  3. If you do not want the final to combine with the vowel, holding down the shift key with the vowel will keep them separate.
    • Moose Cree example, ᓂᑦᐃᔑᓂᐦᑳᓱᓐ. Notice that the t- final ᑦ and the vowel ᐃ do not change into ᑎ.
      • n-i-t-I-x-i-n-i-h-k-a-;-s-o-n
        (ᓐ ᐃ ᑦ SHIFT-ᐃ ᔥ ᐃ ᓐ ᐃ ᐦ ᒃ ᐊ ˙ ᔅ ᐅ ᓐ).
  4. The typing of the "w-dot" combining mark is consistent with the rest of the keyboard strategy. If you're using a right-dot keyboard the "w" will automatically be placed after the syllabic, and an left-dot keyboard will put the "w" before. Unicode treats the w-dot symbols (e.g. ᐎ, ᑴ) as a single character, and typing (w-i, k-w-e) will produce these. You can also type the w-dot as if it were a separate character, use the u key. So u-k-e produces ᐧᑫ. This distinction is useful for graphic design or justification, when you may or may not want the dots to be treated as single letters.
    • Western style: ᒪᐢᑿ  m-a-s-k-w-a (ᒼ ᐊ ᐢ ᐠ ᐤ ᐊ)
    • Eastern style:  ᒪᔅᑾ m-a-s-k-w-a (ᒻ ᐊ ᔅ ᒃ ᐤ ᐊ).
    • Characters like ᐘ/ᐗ are typed w-a (ᐤ ᐊ).
    • If you wish to type the w-dot as a separate keystroke, use the u key: ᒪᐢᑿ m-a-s-k-a-u (ᒼ ᐊ ᐢ ᐠ ᐊ ᐧ). This does not apply to Naskapi.
  5. Punctuation: By default the period . key will give the Cree ᙮ Curly quotes and angle quotes have been placed on the square bracket [ ] and curly bracket { } keys respectively.
  6. When the Caps Lock key is on, the keyboards revert to the standard US keyboard.

Language Name Specific Orthography Description
Keyboard Map
Windows Full Installation
 Mac Keyboard
One Key, One Character Syllabics
Key map
Windows Download X

How the keyboards work:

One Key, One Character

Type in Roman – Syllabics Output

  1. One keyboard functions for four languages: Cree, Ojibway, Oji-Cree, and Naskapi. All of the dialects that I am aware of have been accounted for.
  2. The key layout has been organised with ergonomics in mind, where the most common characters are on the most convenient keys. For example, the extremely prevalent vowel- and k‑series are typed using an index finger, whereas the significantly rarer p- and sh‑series employ the pinky.
  3. Please see the keymap for specific instructions.
  1. To produce a syllabic, type in the correct final + vowel, or if it is one of the vowel symbols, no final is required.
  2. To get the long vowel "dot", use the semi-colon ';' key after the syllabic has been formed.
  3. If you do not want the final to combine with the vowel, holding down the shift key with the vowel will keep them separate. This also works with the combined finals, so (k-W-a) is ᒃ​ᐗ, and (s-H-a) is ᔅ​ᐦᐊ. If you want ᔉ​ᐊ, you can type (s‑k‑A).
  4. The sh-series (ᔐ ᔑ ᔓ ᔕ final ᔥ), has been mapped to 'x' because there is no single key on the Roman keyboard for "sh". Another solution is to follow the Roman Orthography tradition of s-h (ᔅ ᐦ) to get the final ᔥ. The "th" ᕪ series is typed by (t-h).
  5. There are a few finals that are a combination of two distinct sounds, such as Moose Cree ᔉ, Plains Cree ᕽ, or James Bay Cree ᒄ.
  6. The typing of the "w-dot" combining mark is consistent with the rest of the keyboard strategy. If you're using a Western w-dot keyboard the "w" will automatically be placed after the syllabic, and an Eastern w-dot keyboard will put the "w" before. Unicode treats the w-dot symbols (e.g. ᐎ, ᑴ) as a single character, and typing (w-i, k-w-e) will produce these. If you wish the w-dot to be a separate character, use the (u) key. So (u-k-e) produces ᐧᑫ (two glyphs). This distinction is useful for graphic design or justification, when you may or may not want the dots to be treated as single letters.
  7. Punctuation: By default the (.) key will give the Cree ᙮ Curly quotes and angle quotes have been placed on the square bracket [ ] and curly bracket { } keys respectively. Where a punctuation key has been remapped, press the back-slash key (\) (which produces the “special” sign ¤) followed by the punctuation key. So: \ + [ gives [.
Home Previous Page Last Update: Wednesday, January 24, 2007