The Alberta Language Technology Lab

Key sequences for typing Plains Cree Syllabics on a North American keyboard

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Introduction

This document describes the mapping of key sequences on an English keyboard to the Plains Cree (ISO 639-3: crk) syllabics writing system (ISO 15924: Cans). A syllabic writing system is one in which each grapheme represents a syllable rather than a single sound or an entire word. For example, the Cree syllabics character ⟨ᑮ⟩ represents the syllable pronounced as /kiː/.

The key sequences listed here are for a “build-a-syllable” or “phonetic” keyboard layout. A phonetic keyboard layout is one in which the typist composes characters by typing the sounds that the character represents, using the equivalent English keys for those sounds. These English key sequences are converted into one or more syllabic characters. The key sequences are intended to emulate the spoken language as much as possible. For example, if the typist wants to type the character ⟨ᑮ⟩, they would press the sequence k, i, i.

These key sequences assume a physical keyboard, such as an ANSI QWERTY keyboard. For on-screen layouts (such as for smartphones), it is better to provide a keyboard layout that lists syllabics directly, rather than mapping through the Latin alphabet. See [1] and [2] for examples of on-screen layouts.

The recommendations in this document represent the consensus that has emerged among Cree-speaking communities over many years of typing Cree syllabics on keyboards with various platforms. They are the result of a long-term collaboration between Cree-speaking communities and the Alberta Language Technology Lab, which focuses on research and development of language technology for Indigenous languages.

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.

Specification

The following tables contain key sequences that can be typed on an ANSI QWERTY keyboard layout.

A conforming keyboard layout MUST match a row in the following tables by using the longest matching input key sequence.

While a typist is in the process of typing a sequence, the implementation SHOULD display intermediate forms. For example, if the typist desires to obtain the ⟨ᑹ⟩ syllabic, they must type kwii according to the following table. However, because the key sequence kwi maps to ⟨ᑷ⟩, the character ⟨ᑷ⟩ should be presented to the typist after the third keystroke. When the typist inputs the final i, they complete the longer key sequence kwii, and the ⟨ᑷ⟩ should become ⟨ᑹ⟩, the final desired output.

Required mappings

A conforming layout MUST include the following mappings:

Input key sequence Output Unicode code point
eU+1401
iU+1403
iiU+1404
oU+1405
ooU+1406
aU+140A
aaU+140B
weU+140D
wiU+140F
wiiU+1411
woU+1413
wooU+1415
waU+1418
waaU+141A
tU+141F
kU+1420
sU+1422
nU+1423
wU+1424
hU+1426
hkeᐦᑫU+1426 U+146B
hkiᐦᑭU+1426 U+146D
hkiiᐦᑮU+1426 U+146E
hkoᐦᑯU+1426 U+146F
hkooᐦᑰU+1426 U+1470
hkaᐦᑲU+1426 U+1472
hkaaᐦᑳU+1426 U+1473
hkweᐦᑵU+1426 U+1475
hkwiᐦᑷU+1426 U+1477
hkwiiᐦᑹU+1426 U+1479
hkwoᐦᑻU+1426 U+147B
hkwooᐦᑽU+1426 U+147D
hkwaᐦᑿU+1426 U+147F
hkwaaᐦᒁU+1426 U+1481
xU+157D
cU+1428
yU+1429
peU+142F
piU+1431
piiU+1432
poU+1433
pooU+1434
paU+1438
paaU+1439
pweU+143B
pwiU+143D
pwiiU+143F
pwoU+1441
pwooU+1443
pwaU+1445
pwaaU+1447
pU+144A
teU+144C
tiU+144E
tiiU+144F
toU+1450
tooU+1451
taU+1455
taaU+1456
tweU+1458
twiU+145A
twiiU+145C
twoU+145E
twooU+1460
twaU+1462
twaaU+1464
keU+146B
kiU+146D
kiiU+146E
koU+146F
kooU+1470
kaU+1472
kaaU+1473
kweU+1475
kwiU+1477
kwiiU+1479
kwoU+147B
kwooU+147D
kwaU+147F
kwaaU+1481
ceU+1489
ciU+148B
ciiU+148C
coU+148D
cooU+148E
caU+1490
caaU+1491
cweU+1493
cwiU+1495
cwiiU+1497
cwoU+1499
cwooU+149B
cwaU+149D
cwaaU+149F
meU+14A3
miU+14A5
miiU+14A6
moU+14A7
mooU+14A8
maU+14AA
maaU+14AB
mweU+14AD
mwiU+14AF
mwiiU+14B1
mwoU+14B3
mwooU+14B5
mwaU+14B7
mwaaU+14B9
mU+14BC
neU+14C0
niU+14C2
niiU+14C3
noU+14C4
nooU+14C5
naU+14C7
naaU+14C8
nweU+14CA
nwaU+14CC
nwaaU+14CE
lU+14EC
seU+14ED
siU+14EF
siiU+14F0
soU+14F1
sooU+14F2
saU+14F4
saaU+14F5
sweU+14F7
swiU+14F9
swiiU+14FB
swoU+14FD
swooU+14FF
swaU+1501
swaaU+1503
yeU+1526
yiU+1528
yiiU+1529
yoU+152A
yooU+152B
yaU+152D
yaaU+152E
yweU+1530
ywiU+1532
ywiiU+1534
ywoU+1536
ywooU+1538
ywaU+153A
ywaaU+153C
rU+1552
.U+166E

Morpheme separator

The morpheme separator is a character used to indicate boundaries between meaningful pieces of words (“morphemes”), such as prefixes and suffixes. The morpheme separator should be a space with half the width of a normal word-separating space. Although the morpheme separator appears as a small gap inside words, it is not permissible to break lines at the morpheme separator.

A conforming layout MUST map the key combination of Shift+Space to insert a U+202F NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE character.

Optional mappings

The following tables may be appended to the table of required mappings. Implementers choose whether the additional mappings are appropriate to include in their implementation.

Quotation marks

The ASCII quotation mark character U+0022 QUOTATION MARK is too similar in appearance to the ⟨ᐦ⟩ syllabic. Indeed, any punctuation that is rendered as straight lines and dots is confusable with syllabics such as ⟨ᑊ⟩, ⟨ᐨ⟩ and the dots to the right of syllabics with the /w/ sound.

The French guillemet quotation marks are borrowed for this purpose, and as such they should be present on a keyboard layout.

A conforming keyboard SHOULD include the following mappings:

Input key sequence Output Unicode code point
; « U+00AB
' » U+00BB

nw- syllabics

The characters ⟨ᣇ⟩, ⟨ᣉ⟩, ⟨ᣋ⟩, and ⟨ᣍ⟩ are marginal in Plains Cree syllabics. They were not part of the original repertoire included in the Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics (UCAS) Unicode block, and hence are in a different Unicode block, namely Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics Extended.

Fonts that support the UCAS block may not have glyphs for these additional, rarely used characters. As such, implementers may wish to omit the mappings from their layouts.

A conforming keyboard SHOULD include the following mappings:

Input key sequence Output Unicode code point
nwi U+18C7
nwii U+18C9
nwo U+18CB
nwoo U+18CD

Word-final “hk”

The ⟨ᕽ⟩ character represents a word-final /hk/ sequence of sounds. Although the /hk/ sounds can appear word-medially, ⟨ᕽ⟩ never appears in the middle of words; only at the ends of words. Word-final /hk/ occurs in the locative suffix (/‑ɪhk/ or /‑ohk/) and in certain third-person conjunct mode verb conjugations (/‑ʌhk/ or /‑ɑːhk/). Therefore hk is not mapped to ⟨ᕽ⟩ in this specification. Typists can produce the ⟨ᕽ⟩ character by typing x, as specified in the required mappings.

Note that not all Cree communities use the ⟨ᕽ⟩ syllabic final. Notably, Maskwacîs uses the ⟨ᐦᐠ⟩ cluster to write the /hk/ word-finally instead [3]. As such, including this mapping by default is inappropriate if one wishes to make a keyboard layout satisfying all communities.

In order to avoid the appearance of ⟨ᕽ⟩ word-medially, and not to impose the ⟨ᕽ⟩ on communities which do not use it, a conforming keyboard layout SHOULD NOT include the following mapping:

Input key sequence Output Unicode code point
hk U+157D

Prior art

Chris Harvey provides a “build-a-syllable” layout for the Western Cree languages (Plains Cree, Woods Cree, and Western Swampy Cree) at languagegeek.com. However, its key sequences are capped at a maximum of two keys, thus requiring additional keys for syllabic finals and w-dotted syllabics, which provide for a steeper learning curve.

References

  1. ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐍᐏᐣ Keyboard
  2. ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐍᐏᐣ (Cree Syllabics) Phonetic Keyboard
  3. Maskwacis [sic] Plains Cree Syllabics Table with SRO Equivalents