Galaxie Greek (Mnemonic) Keyboard

Overview

This Keyman keyboard is designed for Koine Greek, a trade language of the ancient Mediterranean and the language of the Septuagint and New Testament Scriptures. It is a mnemonic Keyman keyboard. This means that the arrangement of the letters in the Keyman keyboard will depend on the order of the keys on your hardware layout.

This keyboard has been optimised for use with the following hardware layouts:

• AZERTY French
• QWERTY Dutch
• QWERTY Italian
• QWERTY Norwegian
• QWERTY Spanish
• QWERTY Swedish
• QWERTY UK
• QWERTY US
• QWERTZ German

This keyboard includes an On Screen Keyboard view, which displays best on a QWERTY US layout.

This keyboard works with standard Unicode fonts.

Quickstart

This Keyman keyboard works intuitively with a Latin-letter hardware layout. You can find Greek letters on this keyboard by typing the equivalent Latin letter, most similar by sound or appearance. For example, type w [~me/ga to get ὧμέγα.

As you can see, accents and breathing marks are typed after the vowel. They can be typed in any order. For example, ΰ is typed u/+ or u+/.

When you type an accent by itself (or after a non-accentable letter), you will also get that accent. For example, typing / by itself will give you ´ not /. To get the standard keystroke instead of the accent, type = before the character. For example, to get ? instead of ¨, type = ?.

Examples

Keyboard Details

Letters

The Galaxie Greek Mnemonic keyboard uses an intuitive system where most of the Greek letters are matched to equivalent Latin letters, either by sound or appearance.

Example: typing w produces ω.

Example: typing u produces υ.

A few letters in Greek have no exact match in English, by sound or appearance. These have been assigned the remaining keys.

Example: typing q produces θ.

Example: typing c produces ξ.

When followed by a Space or ending punctuation, sigma (σ) becomes final sigma (ς) automatically.

Example: typing sos. produces σος..

Example: typing susswmos Space produces συσσωμος .

Final sigma can also be typed with the apostrophe key.

Example: typing so' produces σος.

Example: typing susswmo' produces συσσωμος.

Capital letters are typed using shift as in English.

Example: typing Shift+a produces Α.

Example: typing Shift+w produces Ω.

To get the Latin keystroke for any key instead of the Greek, type = first.

Example: typing =? produces ?.

Example: typing =Q produces Q.

Breathing Marks, Accents, + Other Diacritics

The Galaxie Greek keyboard includes the following breathing marks, accents, and other diacritics.

Diacritics are typed after the vowel. They can be typed in any order.

Example: typing u/+ or u+/ produces ΰ.

Example: typing a"]¦ or a"¦] or a]¦" or a]"¦ or a ¦"] or a¦]" produces ᾆ.

The only exception to this rule is the circumflex on capital Greek letters. It cannot be typed first because a capital Greek letter cannot take a circumflex without a breathing mark.

Example: typing WJ~ produces Ὧ. Typing circumflex first will not produce Ὧ.

Example: typing A]¦" or A]"¦ or A¦]" produces ᾎ. Typing circumflex before the breathing mark will not produce ᾎ.

Rho (ρ) can also take the rough and smooth breathing mark.

Example: typing r] produces ῤ.

Example: typing R[ produces Ῥ.

Typing a diacritic twice while editing lets you remove the diacritic from a letter.

Example: typing o]] produces ο not ὀ᾿.

Example: typing h[/¦/ produces ᾑ not ᾕ´.

If you type a diacritic by itself or after any letter which cannot take that diacritic, you will get the diacritic by itself.

Example: typing / produces ´.

Example: typing g?d produces γ¨δ.

On European hardware layouts where `,´,^,~, and/or ¨ already function as deadkeys, you'll need to type a Space after just those diacritics in order to get the diacritic.

Example: typing i¨Space on a Spanish QWERTY keyboard produces ϊ.

Example: typing w~Space on a Dutch QWERTY keyboard produces ῶ.

Punctuation

Most punctuation on the Galaxie Greek keyboard is typed exactly as on your Latin-letter keyboard, though sometimes you will need to use the 'standard keystroke' rule above to get the punctuation you need.

Example: typing . produces ..

Example: typing ; produces ;.

The Greek semicolon or ano teleia is the only exception.

Example: typing : produces ·.

Technical Information

System Requirements

It is recommended that you use one of the following hardware layouts with this Keyman keyboard:

• AZERTY French
• QWERTY Dutch
• QWERTY Italian
• QWERTY Norwegian
• QWERTY Spanish
• QWERTY Swedish
• QWERTY UK
• QWERTY US
• QWERTZ German

Unicode Version

This keyboard complies with Unicode 6.0

Keyboard Authorship

This keyboard was created by Hampton Keathley of Galaxie Software. SIL International graciously acknowledges the contribution made by the author in developing this keyboard and making it freely available for use with Keyman Desktop and KeymanWeb. His effort has assisted greatly in enabling people to communicate in Koine Greek.

Version 3.1 released 24 May 2012. Added to Hebrew keyboard Latin output and Ctrl+Space (to prevent word-final form). Amended Hebrew help.
Version 3.0 released 23 August 2011. Optimised for multiple European hardware layouts.
Version 2.1 released 15 December 2009. Full Greek documentation.
Version 2.02 released 11 April 2008. Fixed Greek: rho + dasia and rho + psili with [ and ] keys.
Version 2.0 for Keyman Desktop 7.0. Released 24 October 2007