Yiddish Pasekh Keyboard Help
This keyboard layout is designed to type Yiddish by transliteration.
This keyboard layout works best with a QWERTY (English) keyboard. It uses standard Unicode fonts. Many common Windows fonts support Yiddish, including Times New Roman and Arial. Use the Font Helper in Keyman Desktop to find more fonts that work with Yiddish.
This keyboard complies with Unicode 5.1
Desktop Keyboard Layout
Quickstart
Type Yiddish by transliteration: type sh for ש (shin 05E9) or type ay for אײַ (pasekh tsvey yudn 05D0 05F2 05B7).
You can use idle keys to speed up typing but you do not have to:
| Key | Alternate method | Yiddish | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| c | ts | ץ (05E5) | From Eastern European orthographies |
| j | ey | ײ (05F2) | The name of j rhymes with ey |
| w | sh | ש (05E9) | Looks like |
| x | kh | ך (05DA) | Phonetic symbol |
Khof, mem, nun, fey and tsadek are shaped automatically: they take their final forms at the end of words and their regular forms otherwise. Isolated final forms can be typed with shifted keys:
| Key | Yiddish | Note |
|---|---|---|
| SHIFT+C | ץ (05E5) | Final tsadek |
| SHIFT+X | ך (05DA) | Final khof |
Shtumer Alef is automatically inserted before ay, ey, i, oy, or u at the beginning of words. You can type a word-internal shtumer alef with SHIFT+A א (05D0)
Occasionally, you may need initial ay, ey, etc. without a shtumer alef, e.g. when you want to list the letters of the alefbeys. You can type them with the following key combinations:
| Key | Yiddish | Note |
|---|---|---|
| E | ײ (05F2) | ey (yiddish double yod) |
| I | י (05D9) | i (yod) |
| J | ײ (05F2) | ey (yiddish double yod) |
| O | ױ (05F1) | oy (yiddish vav yod) |
| U | ו (05D5) | u (vav) |
| Y | ײַ (05F2 05B7) | ay (yiddish double yod + patah) |
| yi | ייִ (05D9 05D9 05B4) | (yod+yod+hiriq) |
| iy | יִי (05D9 05B4 05D9) | (yod+hiriq+yod) |
| Ei | ײיִ (05F2 05D9 05B4) | (yiddish double yod+yod+hiriq) |
| Ui | ויִ (05D5 05D9 05B4) | (vav+yod+hiriq) |
| II | יִ (05D9 05B4) | (yod+hiriq) |
Hebrew-specific letters are typed with shifted keys, too:
| Key | Hebrew | Note |
|---|---|---|
| B | בֿ (05D1 05BF) | veys |
| H | ח (05D7) | khes |
| K | כּ (05DB 05BC) | kof (Hebrew kaf) |
| S | ת (05EA) | sof |
| T | תּ (05EA 05BC) | tof |
| W | שׂ (05E9 05C2) | sin |
Geresh is typed with SHIFT+G ׳ (05F3) and curly double quotes are typed with the q „ (201E) key. The opening quotation mark is low if Q is unshifted and high if shifted.
The backslash (\) key functions as a temporary place holder to separate letters or parts of compound words.
Type s\h to output סה (samekh hey) instead of ש (shin),
or type ge\aylt to insert a shtumer alef between the ayen and the pasekh tsvey yudn.
dagesh or mapiq can be accessed following the appropriate letters. Some of these are available on single keystrokes and some are available by typing a backslash \ before a key.
Type K or \K to output כּ (05DB 05BC) kaf mapiq
Type p or \p to output פּ (05E4 05BC) pe mapiq
Type T or \T to output תּ (05EA 05BC) tav mapiq
Type \U to output וּ (05D5 05BC) vav mapiq
The hyphen (-) key outputs a makef after a Yiddish letter and a hyphen otherwise. If, for some reason, you need a hyphen after a Yiddish letter, press the hyphen key twice.
A hyphen after a hyphen turns the hyphen into an en dash.
A hyphen after an en dash turns the en dash into an em dash.
A geresh after a geresh turns the geresh into gershayim.
