Keyboards for Amharic
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Benson Muite
Jan 4, 2021, 9:16:33 AM1/4/21
to Gnu/Linux Ethiopia
Hi,
Am developing an open source web application where people can input text
in Amharic. This requires creating a soft keyboard. Is there a preferred
keyboard for typing Amharic?
XKB has a configuration at:
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config/-/blob/master/symbols/et
which seems like what is used in Ubuntu:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/606286/how-to-use-amharic-ez-keyboard-layout-in-ubuntu-14-04
Google has a related layout:
https://www.google.com/inputtools/try/
but Symbol tables also seem common:
http://keyboards.ethiopic.org/docs/6.0/AmharicTyping-English.pdf
https://www.ethiowebs.com/amharic-keyboard
Regards,
Benson
Am developing an open source web application where people can input text
in Amharic. This requires creating a soft keyboard. Is there a preferred
keyboard for typing Amharic?
XKB has a configuration at:
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config/-/blob/master/symbols/et
which seems like what is used in Ubuntu:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/606286/how-to-use-amharic-ez-keyboard-layout-in-ubuntu-14-04
Google has a related layout:
https://www.google.com/inputtools/try/
but Symbol tables also seem common:
http://keyboards.ethiopic.org/docs/6.0/AmharicTyping-English.pdf
https://www.ethiowebs.com/amharic-keyboard
Regards,
Benson
JOB
Jan 4, 2021, 2:47:09 PM1/4/21
to Gnu/Linux Ethiopia
Hi Benson,
Amharic typing methods is a bit all over the place on the tech scene for the language speakers.
For Linux users, the "sera-m17n" input as explained in the askubuntu website is the functional one available and widely used.
There aren't many that use Google Inputs, though I guess there would be a few that would use it for a quick jot. I can't imagine it used by anyone on a regular basis.
Windows users, it's a mixed bag. I'd say the most common is (or was) PowerGeez, but it is an outdated and atrocius software to use and incompatible with browsers, so I can definitely say it won't work for your purposes. And I bet it's limited to older folks who aren't tech-savvy. I don't know what is the most commonly used, but Keyman is an excellent and professional-looking input method, though I'm not certain how many know about it.
Mac, can't help you there. Amharic coverage there is worse than the other platforms and I don't know what Mac users use to type Amharic.
Best regards,
Eyob
በ2021 ጃንዩወሪ 4, ሰኞ 5:16:33 ከሰዓት UTC+3ላይ benson...@emailplus.org የሚከተለውን ጽፈዋል፦
Benson Muite
Jan 16, 2021, 4:52:05 AM1/16/21
to linux-e...@googlegroups.com
Hi Eyob,
Thanks for your answers. What are your thoughts on the One Laptop per
child Keyboard:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Ethiopian_Setup
This is also available in Linux. It maps consonants and vowels to
similar latin alphabet equivalents. Thus each Amharic/Ge'ez symbol
typically requires two keystrokes, one for a consonant and the second
for a vowel. For Mandarin, in Taiwan children use Bopofomo symbols (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bopomofo ) to learn pronunciation since
they do not usually first learn the Latin alphabet. How do children
typically learn to write in Amharic? Are vowels and consonants
systematically introduced early on, and if so, what symbols are used to
represent the vowels (ə u i a ē ə o ʷə ʷi/ui ʷa/ua ʷē/uē ʷə )?
The consonants seem like they can be well represented as the letter
corresponding to ə, for example ሀ
Agerigna also seems to have a keyboard:
http://agerigna.com/#keyboard
Is this popular?
An example keyboard on GitHub that can be incorporated into websites:
https://bkmgit.github.io/amharic-keyboard/
source code at:
https://github.com/lehagere/amharic-keyboard
Would this be comfortable for people to use?
This is perhaps less useful though the patent author was responsible for
getting Ge'ez characters in unicode:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US10133362B2/en
Finally, Gerawork Aynekulu has written a masters thesis:
http://elibrary.matf.bg.ac.rs/bitstream/handle/123456789/4483/masGeraworkAynekulu.pdf?sequence=1
with a proposal for an Amharic Keyboard, however this seems not to be
available in the current version of Anysoft keyboard:
https://github.com/AnySoftKeyboard/AnySoftKeyboard/blob/master/addons/languages/PACKS.md
Is his analysis method and proposed layout reasonable (it seems to be
one of the few that takes into account frequencies of characters to
improve typing speed)?
Regards,
Benson
> <http://keyboards.ethiopic.org/docs/6.0/AmharicTyping-English.pdf>
> https://www.ethiowebs.com/amharic-keyboard
> <https://www.ethiowebs.com/amharic-keyboard>
>
> Regards,
> Benson
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "Gnu/Linux Ethiopia" group.
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Thanks for your answers. What are your thoughts on the One Laptop per
child Keyboard:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Ethiopian_Setup
This is also available in Linux. It maps consonants and vowels to
similar latin alphabet equivalents. Thus each Amharic/Ge'ez symbol
typically requires two keystrokes, one for a consonant and the second
for a vowel. For Mandarin, in Taiwan children use Bopofomo symbols (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bopomofo ) to learn pronunciation since
they do not usually first learn the Latin alphabet. How do children
typically learn to write in Amharic? Are vowels and consonants
systematically introduced early on, and if so, what symbols are used to
represent the vowels (ə u i a ē ə o ʷə ʷi/ui ʷa/ua ʷē/uē ʷə )?
The consonants seem like they can be well represented as the letter
corresponding to ə, for example ሀ
Agerigna also seems to have a keyboard:
http://agerigna.com/#keyboard
Is this popular?
An example keyboard on GitHub that can be incorporated into websites:
https://bkmgit.github.io/amharic-keyboard/
source code at:
https://github.com/lehagere/amharic-keyboard
Would this be comfortable for people to use?
This is perhaps less useful though the patent author was responsible for
getting Ge'ez characters in unicode:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US10133362B2/en
Finally, Gerawork Aynekulu has written a masters thesis:
http://elibrary.matf.bg.ac.rs/bitstream/handle/123456789/4483/masGeraworkAynekulu.pdf?sequence=1
with a proposal for an Amharic Keyboard, however this seems not to be
available in the current version of Anysoft keyboard:
https://github.com/AnySoftKeyboard/AnySoftKeyboard/blob/master/addons/languages/PACKS.md
Is his analysis method and proposed layout reasonable (it seems to be
one of the few that takes into account frequencies of characters to
improve typing speed)?
Regards,
Benson
> https://www.ethiowebs.com/amharic-keyboard
> <https://www.ethiowebs.com/amharic-keyboard>
>
> Regards,
> Benson
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "Gnu/Linux Ethiopia" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
> an email to linux-ethiopi...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:linux-ethiopi...@googlegroups.com>.
> To view this discussion on the web visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/linux-ethiopia/e2e00f3b-5b04-4c99-9364-b305676ccf2en%40googlegroups.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/linux-ethiopia/e2e00f3b-5b04-4c99-9364-b305676ccf2en%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.
Meseret Dastaw
Jan 16, 2021, 5:01:36 PM1/16/21
to linux-e...@googlegroups.com
attached
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Gnu/Linux Ethiopia" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to linux-ethiopi...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/linux-ethiopia/e2e00f3b-5b04-4c99-9364-b305676ccf2en%40googlegroups.com.
Benson Muite
Jan 17, 2021, 4:04:05 AM1/17/21
to linux-e...@googlegroups.com
Hi Meseret,
Thanks for your reply. Have gotten m(18n) to work on Fedora linux, as
m(18n) is no longer being actively developed, one might consider efforts
to maintain it or develop something that would work with say xkd.
Nevertheless, m(18n) seems very hacky and non intuitive for someone who
may have no reason to learn the latin alphabet. The keyboard layout at
https://www.metaappz.com/Free_Amharic_Keyboard/Default.aspx has most of
the keys and gives a good starting point. After pressing the first
letter of an input sequence, possible characters are automatically
suggested, so it is possible to click and choose the correct letter.
Clicking is a little slow, and it would be nice to press a second key if
needed to get the correct character.
Inspired by the design used in Agerigna (http://agerigna.com/#keyboard -
a company developing social media platform for 22,000,000 Amharic native
speakers), have made a starting point for a layout which is attached and
can also be found at:
http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/gists/4cb81c8397d04c506e04558c5af1c5a5
Vowels which are an alien concept in Amharic are added using
ቀ ቁ ቂ ቃ ቄ ቆ ቈ ቊ ቋ ቌ ቍ
the first five of which which are mapped to the keys a e i o u y. This
is done because there is no Amharic symbol corresponding to a vowel.
This seems to be a strategy used for many keyboards. Possibly other
symbols could be used. Suggestions for such other symbols would be much
appreciated.
One might also try to have all letters used in Amharic directly mapped
to the keyboard and use some keys as modifiers, for example left shift,
Fn, Alt, Alt Gr, Ctrl, right shift could work, but their locations are
inconvenient for frequent use.
Mandarin is of course interesting case, since one may assume that to
type it one needs the following setup:
https://www.digmandarin.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ty1.jpg
https://www.digmandarin.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ty2.jpg
:)
In practice regular Mandarin has:
a) Pinyin method (similar to what is used in most Amharic input methods)
[1,2]
b) Bopomofo (similar to Pinyin but uses Mandarin like characters) [3]
c) The five stroke input method (which is how one originally learned to
write Mandarin, though at present it seems it is being displaced by
Pinyin, though it is not clear how long this trend will last) [1]
d) the hand writing input method which can be done on a track pad and
relies on machine learning algorithms to recognize a character [1]
The handwriting input method can work for many languages, include
Amharaic and other Ethiopic languages, but this requires a trackpad or
other touch input device which may not always be desirable. Something
similar to Bopomofo or the five stroke input method would be great for
Amharic as it would more easily be used by someone who has no reason to
learn the latin alphabet.
Finally, have at present restricted the design to a standard ANSI 104
keyboard, but as indicated at http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com
there are many other possible alternative keyboard designs. The standard
keyboards benefit from mass production and therefore low prices, but the
number of Amharic speakers, and currently a 50% mobile connection rate
in Ethiopia[4], it seems that mass production would be possible
sometime in the near future. There also appears to be enough technical
skill to implement something[5].
[1] https://www.digmandarin.com/how-to-type-in-chinese.html
[2] https://yoyochinese.com/blog/how-to-type-in-chinese-on-any-device
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bopomofo#Input_method
[4]
https://www.statista.com/statistics/502058/mobile-cellular-subscriptions-per-100-inhabitants-in-ethiopia/
[5] https://www.huawei.com/minisite/gci/en/country-profile-et.html
On 1/17/21 1:00 AM, Meseret Dastaw wrote:
> attached
>
> On Mon, Jan 4, 2021 at 2:47 PM JOB <eyob....@gmail.com
> <mailto:eyob....@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Hi Benson,
>
> Amharic typing methods is a bit all over the place on the tech scene
> for the language speakers.
>
> For Linux users, the "sera-m17n" input as explained in the askubuntu
> website is the functional one available and widely used.
>
> There aren't many that use Google Inputs, though I guess there would
> be a few that would use it for a quick jot. I can't imagine it used
> by anyone on a regular basis.
>
> Windows users, it's a mixed bag. I'd say the most common is (or was)
> PowerGeez, but it is an outdated and atrocius software to use and
> incompatible with browsers, so I can definitely say it won't work
> for your purposes. And I bet it's limited to older folks who aren't
> tech-savvy. I don't know what is the most commonly used, but Keyman
> is an excellent and professional-looking input method, though I'm
> not certain how many know about it.
>
> Mac, can't help you there. Amharic coverage there is worse than the
> other platforms and I don't know what Mac users use to type Amharic.
>
> Best regards,
> Eyob
>
> በ2021 ጃንዩወሪ 4, ሰኞ 5:16:33 ከሰዓት UTC+3ላይ benson...@emailplus.org
> <mailto:benson...@emailplus.org> የሚከተለውን ጽፈዋል፦
> https://www.ethiowebs.com/amharic-keyboard
>
>
>
> --
> Meseret Bayeleygne
> e-mail: msrt...@gmail.com <mailto:msrt...@gmail.com>
> Toronto, Canada
>
Thanks for your reply. Have gotten m(18n) to work on Fedora linux, as
m(18n) is no longer being actively developed, one might consider efforts
to maintain it or develop something that would work with say xkd.
Nevertheless, m(18n) seems very hacky and non intuitive for someone who
may have no reason to learn the latin alphabet. The keyboard layout at
https://www.metaappz.com/Free_Amharic_Keyboard/Default.aspx has most of
the keys and gives a good starting point. After pressing the first
letter of an input sequence, possible characters are automatically
suggested, so it is possible to click and choose the correct letter.
Clicking is a little slow, and it would be nice to press a second key if
needed to get the correct character.
Inspired by the design used in Agerigna (http://agerigna.com/#keyboard -
a company developing social media platform for 22,000,000 Amharic native
speakers), have made a starting point for a layout which is attached and
can also be found at:
http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/#/gists/4cb81c8397d04c506e04558c5af1c5a5
Vowels which are an alien concept in Amharic are added using
ቀ ቁ ቂ ቃ ቄ ቆ ቈ ቊ ቋ ቌ ቍ
the first five of which which are mapped to the keys a e i o u y. This
is done because there is no Amharic symbol corresponding to a vowel.
This seems to be a strategy used for many keyboards. Possibly other
symbols could be used. Suggestions for such other symbols would be much
appreciated.
One might also try to have all letters used in Amharic directly mapped
to the keyboard and use some keys as modifiers, for example left shift,
Fn, Alt, Alt Gr, Ctrl, right shift could work, but their locations are
inconvenient for frequent use.
Mandarin is of course interesting case, since one may assume that to
type it one needs the following setup:
https://www.digmandarin.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ty1.jpg
https://www.digmandarin.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ty2.jpg
:)
In practice regular Mandarin has:
a) Pinyin method (similar to what is used in most Amharic input methods)
[1,2]
b) Bopomofo (similar to Pinyin but uses Mandarin like characters) [3]
c) The five stroke input method (which is how one originally learned to
write Mandarin, though at present it seems it is being displaced by
Pinyin, though it is not clear how long this trend will last) [1]
d) the hand writing input method which can be done on a track pad and
relies on machine learning algorithms to recognize a character [1]
The handwriting input method can work for many languages, include
Amharaic and other Ethiopic languages, but this requires a trackpad or
other touch input device which may not always be desirable. Something
similar to Bopomofo or the five stroke input method would be great for
Amharic as it would more easily be used by someone who has no reason to
learn the latin alphabet.
Finally, have at present restricted the design to a standard ANSI 104
keyboard, but as indicated at http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com
there are many other possible alternative keyboard designs. The standard
keyboards benefit from mass production and therefore low prices, but the
number of Amharic speakers, and currently a 50% mobile connection rate
in Ethiopia[4], it seems that mass production would be possible
sometime in the near future. There also appears to be enough technical
skill to implement something[5].
[1] https://www.digmandarin.com/how-to-type-in-chinese.html
[2] https://yoyochinese.com/blog/how-to-type-in-chinese-on-any-device
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bopomofo#Input_method
[4]
https://www.statista.com/statistics/502058/mobile-cellular-subscriptions-per-100-inhabitants-in-ethiopia/
[5] https://www.huawei.com/minisite/gci/en/country-profile-et.html
On 1/17/21 1:00 AM, Meseret Dastaw wrote:
> attached
>
> On Mon, Jan 4, 2021 at 2:47 PM JOB <eyob....@gmail.com
> <mailto:eyob....@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Hi Benson,
>
> Amharic typing methods is a bit all over the place on the tech scene
> for the language speakers.
>
> For Linux users, the "sera-m17n" input as explained in the askubuntu
> website is the functional one available and widely used.
>
> There aren't many that use Google Inputs, though I guess there would
> be a few that would use it for a quick jot. I can't imagine it used
> by anyone on a regular basis.
>
> Windows users, it's a mixed bag. I'd say the most common is (or was)
> PowerGeez, but it is an outdated and atrocius software to use and
> incompatible with browsers, so I can definitely say it won't work
> for your purposes. And I bet it's limited to older folks who aren't
> tech-savvy. I don't know what is the most commonly used, but Keyman
> is an excellent and professional-looking input method, though I'm
> not certain how many know about it.
>
> Mac, can't help you there. Amharic coverage there is worse than the
> other platforms and I don't know what Mac users use to type Amharic.
>
> Best regards,
> Eyob
>
> በ2021 ጃንዩወሪ 4, ሰኞ 5:16:33 ከሰዓት UTC+3ላይ benson...@emailplus.org
>
> Hi,
>
> Am developing an open source web application where people can
> input text
> in Amharic. This requires creating a soft keyboard. Is there a
> preferred
> keyboard for typing Amharic?
> XKB has a configuration at:
> https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config/-/blob/master/symbols/et
> <https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config/-/blob/master/symbols/et>
>
> which seems like what is used in Ubuntu:
> https://askubuntu.com/questions/606286/how-to-use-amharic-ez-keyboard-layout-in-ubuntu-14-04
> <https://askubuntu.com/questions/606286/how-to-use-amharic-ez-keyboard-layout-in-ubuntu-14-04>
>
>
> Google has a related layout:
> https://www.google.com/inputtools/try/
> <https://www.google.com/inputtools/try/>
>
> but Symbol tables also seem common:
> http://keyboards.ethiopic.org/docs/6.0/AmharicTyping-English.pdf
> <http://keyboards.ethiopic.org/docs/6.0/AmharicTyping-English.pdf>
> Hi,
>
> Am developing an open source web application where people can
> input text
> in Amharic. This requires creating a soft keyboard. Is there a
> preferred
> keyboard for typing Amharic?
> XKB has a configuration at:
> https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config/-/blob/master/symbols/et
> <https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xkeyboard-config/xkeyboard-config/-/blob/master/symbols/et>
>
> which seems like what is used in Ubuntu:
> https://askubuntu.com/questions/606286/how-to-use-amharic-ez-keyboard-layout-in-ubuntu-14-04
> <https://askubuntu.com/questions/606286/how-to-use-amharic-ez-keyboard-layout-in-ubuntu-14-04>
>
>
> Google has a related layout:
> https://www.google.com/inputtools/try/
> <https://www.google.com/inputtools/try/>
>
> but Symbol tables also seem common:
> http://keyboards.ethiopic.org/docs/6.0/AmharicTyping-English.pdf
> https://www.ethiowebs.com/amharic-keyboard
> <https://www.ethiowebs.com/amharic-keyboard>
>
> Regards,
> Benson
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "Gnu/Linux Ethiopia" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it,
> send an email to linux-ethiopi...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:linux-ethiopi...@googlegroups.com>.
>
> Regards,
> Benson
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "Gnu/Linux Ethiopia" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it,
> send an email to linux-ethiopi...@googlegroups.com
> To view this discussion on the web visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/linux-ethiopia/e2e00f3b-5b04-4c99-9364-b305676ccf2en%40googlegroups.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/linux-ethiopia/e2e00f3b-5b04-4c99-9364-b305676ccf2en%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/linux-ethiopia/e2e00f3b-5b04-4c99-9364-b305676ccf2en%40googlegroups.com
>
>
>
> --
> Meseret Bayeleygne
> e-mail: msrt...@gmail.com <mailto:msrt...@gmail.com>
> Toronto, Canada
>
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