Tutorial Part One

This tutorial takes you through the steps to create a keyboard layout in Ukelele. Some basic steps are omitted, such as launching the program.

The keyboard layout that is developed here was created the Australian Society for Indigenous Languages (AuSIL) for the Yolngu language, spoken in Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory, Australia, and is also useful for other Australian Aboriginal languages, such as Pitjantjatjara. It is not a particularly complex keyboard layout, but it should illustrate the usage of Ukelele in a real situation.

Designing the Keyboard Layout

The first thing that should be done is to plan the keyboard layout. This needs to be done with several things in mind, and should be completed before you start creating the keyboard layout with Ukelele.

The following is the description of the principles that went into making this keyboard layout:

1. 1.We want all keys available for both Aboriginal languages and English without losing functionality.

2. 2.High frequency sounds (like /ŋ/) should not be on the outermost sphere of keys.

3. 3.High frequency sounds should not require complex keying sequences (such as SHIFT + CONTROL, followed by a sequence of two-letter keystrokes) .

4. 4.Combinations such as <shift> should only have the function of getting upper case letters (plus a few standard computer commands).

5. 5.Speakers of Aboriginal languages should have the the full range of Unicode typefaces available to them.

6. 6.There are three dead keys in this keyboard layout. The first is the semicolon key, which produces modified letters. The other two are the less than (<) and greater than (>) keys, which are used for producing typographer’s quotes (‘ ’ “ ”). The terminology used by the developers of the keyboard is that a dead key is followed by a base key to produce an output glyph, or character.

The dead key combinations are listed in the following table:

Getting Started