“One-Key” Keyboard Layouts

Cree One-Key Keyboards

Oji-Cree One-Key Keyboards

“Build-a-Syllable” Layouts

There are two types of Syllabics keyboards on this site, both systems have their advantages and disadvantages.

• 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. 
• Build-a-syllable. These follow the principle of typing consonants and vowels separately. To type ᐃ, simply use the 'i' key, and ᑫ is generated by the sequence 'k' + 'e'. More information on these can be found in each keyboard's keymap pdf.

The One-Key takes some training to learn, but once your fingers know the keys, it’s quite fast. For those who are not familiar with the Roman orthography, this system is much easier to learn.

The Build-a-syllable keyboarding method is simpler for the casual user. The keys are arranged according to English QWERTY which is physically printed on most Cree speakers' keyboards and serves an aid to memory. This system is much easier for those who can touch-type in English.

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.

There are also stylistic differences. Some writers may prefer a certain placement of final:

• the final /w/ or /ch/ at the middle of the line. As in ᒣᐢᑲᓇᐤ ᐑᐸᐨ
• the final /w/ or /ch/ at the top of the line, as in ᒣᐢᑲᓇᐤ ᐑᐸᐨ

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.

All keyboards (unless otherwise noted) on this site are designed to work with Unicode 5.2 fonts, and as such, will only work with (as of 2010) fonts which are very up-to-date. Older syllabics fonts may be lacking a few Syllabics characters. Please see the Languagegeek fonts download page for Unicode 5.2 fonts.

Note to Mac typists

The Languagegeek syllabics keyboards for Macs use the Caps Lock to switch between English and Syllabics. When Caps Lock is off, the keyboards type in Syllabics. When Caps Lock is on, the keyboards type in English. Windows keyboards do not have this functionality.