ha-ig-yo

Mac keyboard layouts for Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba

This implements a keyboard layout for macOS for the three major languages of Nigeria: Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba.

Installation

To install:

1. Download Hausa-Igbo-Yoruba.dmg.
2. Double click Hausa-Igbo-Yoruba.dmg.
3. Drag the icon Hausa-Igbo-Yoruba.bundle to the icon “Drag here to install”. You will be asked for your password to complete this action.
4. Click the top Apple  menu, and then System Preferences.
5. Click Keyboard.
6. Click Input Sources, then +.
7. Select your language: “Hausa”, “Igbo”, or “Yoruba”.
8. Select “Hausa - alt”, “Igbo - Alt”, or “Yoruba - alt”, and then click Add.

You’re ready!

Typing

To switch between keyboard layouts, use Control-Spacebar, or whatever is defined in System Preferences/Keyboard/Shortcuts/Input Sources.

To type, use the Alt key with the corresponding letters:

Vowels

• ẹ Alt-E
• Ẹ Alt-Shift-E
• ị Alt-I
• Ị Alt-Shift-I
• ọ Alt-O
• Ọ Alt-Shift-O
• ụ Alt-U
• Ụ Alt-Shift-U

Consonants

• ɓ Alt-B
• Ɓ Alt-Shift-B
• ɗ Alt-D
• Ɗ Alt-Shift-D
• ƙ Alt-K
• Ƙ Alt-Shift-K
• ṅ Alt-N
• Ṅ Alt-Shift-N
• r̃ Alt-R
• R̃ Alt-Shift-R
• ṣ Alt-S
• Ṣ Alt-Shift-S
• ƴ Alt-Y
• Ƴ Alt-Shift-Y

Tones

High tone

• Also known as: acute.
• Key: Alt-H
• Mnemonic: “High”.
• Example: ị́ - Alt-I Alt-H

Low tone

• Also known as: grave.
• Key: Alt-L
• Mnemonic: “Low”.
• Example: Ẹ̀ - Alt-Shift-E Alt-L

Middle tone

• Also known as: macron.
• Key: Alt-M
• Mnemonic: “Medium, Macron”.
• Example: Ā - Alt-A

Rising tone

• Also known as: caron.
• Key: Alt-C
• Mnemonic: “Caron”.
• Example: ǒ - o Alt-C

Falling tone

• Also known as: circumflex.
• Key: Alt-X
• Mnemonic: “cicumfleX”.
• Example: û - u Alt-X

Comments

1. The three layouts are the same. They are stored separately so that it would be easier to find them by the language name in the system preferences. The letters don’t overlap, and when two people speaking different languages happen to use the same computer, it would be easier if they didn’t have to switch layouts.
2. I have no intention to declare this as a comprehensive or standard solution. This is just a quick thing to make it possible to type the biggest languages of Nigeria on Mac computers. I hope that more people who are more experienced and professional than I am will come up with better solutions. That said, I do call upon Apple to ship a typing solution for these languages, each of which is spoken by many millions of people, built into the next version of macOS. Whether it will be this layout or something else, is a separate question.
3. If you want to type these languages on Windows, check your system preferences. There are keyboard layouts for them already built into Windows 10, although the key mapping is different from what is suggested here.
4. I don’t actually know any of these languages. I’m just trying to help people type.
5. This keyboard layout was made with Ukelele. I thank SIL for making Ukelele available. I also thank Blossom Ozurumba and Assaf Bartov for encouraging me to make these layouts.

Licensing and permissions

This software is released under the CC0 1.0 Universal license.

Use it, modify it, copy it, combine it with anything you want.

Amir E. Aharoni amir.aharoni@mail.huji.ac.il May 2017