IPA (SIL) keyboard for Keyman Desktop

Martin Hosken and Lorna Evans

The IPA (SIL) Keyman keyboard is a mnemonic keyboard definition which enters Unicode values for IPA. This version of the keyboard supports a mnemonic layout. This allows a user to type with any kind of keyboard, rather than just a US keyboard.

Keyboard Layout

The keyboard layout is described in terms of an IPA chart rather than a keyboard. This is because many base characters are typed as a sequence of a letter followed by one of <, > or = which are characters used to change a base character to another base character. Diacritics are typed as sequences of an appropriate key. Details of the keyboard layout may be found in the "welcome.htm" document in the section on Keyboard Layout.

The default for this keyboard is to type a letter followed by a "modifier". For example, this sequence "b>" would produce "ɓ". If you wish to use the opposite sequence (>b) that is possible. Use one or the other of these options. Do not turn Before on with Keyman configuration and off with the RALT hotkeys.

Using Keyman Configuration: On Windows, go to Keyman Configuration, select the keyboard, click on Keyboard options and choose Before. You may need to exit Keyman configuration before the default behavior changes. This method will change your default to Before and everytime you switch to this keyboard it will remain using the Before style until you change it back to After style using Keyman configuration.
Using RALT hotkeys: It is also possible to switch from After to Before using the RALT HYPHEN sequence (RALT+-). Switch back to After using the RALT EQUAL sequence (RALT+=). This method will change to Before during just this session of using the keyboard. After you stop using the keyboard it will return to After.

Fonts

SIL International has produced several Unicode font sets that allow for the transcription of linguistic data using the International Phonetic Alphabet and this keyboard. These fonts are:

Charis SIL

Doulos SIL