Cherokee Unicode in Linux

Posted 12-07-2008 at 01:37 PM by Mol_Bolom
Updated 01-11-2009 at 08:25 PM by Mol_Bolom (New Information.)

On Zenwalk just copy the contents to a file either named cherokee, che, or whatever you want the file named. I have it named usche because I had edited the us symbol file to make it.

Then save the file under /etc/X11/xkb/symbols

On other linux distro's the xkb directory might be somewhere else.

Code:

default
partial alphanumeric_keys modifier_keys 
xkb_symbols "basic" {

    name[Group1]= "Cherokee";

    // Alphanumeric section
    key <TLDE> {	[     	U13CA,  U13CB             ]       };
    key <AE01> {	[	U13E3,	U13B1 		]	};
    key <AE02> {	[	U13A3,	U13C7		]	};
    key <AE03> {	[	U13E9,	U13E7	]	};
    key <AE04> {	[	U13D9,	U13B0		]	};
    key <AE05> {	[	U13E6,	U13B9		]	};
    key <AE06> {	[	U13DC,	U13DD	]	};
    key <AE07> {	[	U13E1,	U13BA	]	};
    key <AE08> {	[	U13D6,	U13BB	]	};
    key <AE09> {	[	U13D2,	parenleft	]	};
    key <AE10> {	[	U13C4,	parenright	]	};
    key <AE11> {	[     	U13BF,	U13BC	]	};
    key <AE12> {	[     	U13F3,	U13BD		]	};

    key <AD01> {	[	U13AA,	U13C6		]	};
    key <AD02> {	[	U13B3,	U13EB		]	};
    key <AD03> {	[	U13A1,	U13E3		]	};
    key <AD04> {	[	U13DB,	U13CF		]	};
    key <AD05> {	[	U13D4,	U13D8		]	};
    key <AD06> {	[	U13EF,	U13F2		]	};
    key <AD07> {	[	U13A4,	U13AD		]	};
    key <AD08> {	[	U13A2,	U13F1		]	};
    key <AD09> {	[	U13A3,	U13EC		]	};
    key <AD10> {	[	U13C1,	U13EA		]	};
    key <AD11> {	[ 	U13D5,	U13D1	]	};
    key <AD12> {	[ 	U13B6,	U13E4	]	};

    key <AC01> {	[	U13A0,	U13CC, U13A2, U13A7		]	};
    key <AC02> {	[	U13CD,	U13CE		]	};
    key <AC03> {	[	U13D7,	U13D0		]	};
    key <AC04> {	[	U13A9,	U13C8		]	};
    key <AC05> {	[	U13A6,	U13E5		]	};
    key <AC06> {	[	U13AF,	U13B2		]	};
    key <AC07> {	[	U13DA,	U13AB		]	};
    key <AC08> {	[	U13B8,	U13A7		]	};
    key <AC09> {	[	U13B5,	U13AE		]	};
    key <AC10> {	[ 	U13E8,	U13E0		]	};
    key <AC11> {	[ apostrophe,	quotedbl	]	};

    key <AB01> {	[	U13AC,	U13C3		]	};
    key <AB02> {	[	U13F4,	U13ED		]	};
    key <AB03> {	[	U13D3,	U13DF		]	};
    key <AB04> {	[	U13A5,	U13DE		]	};
    key <AB05> {	[	U13A8,	U13F0		]	};
    key <AB06> {	[	U13BE,	U13BB		]	};
    key <AB07> {	[	U13C5,	U13B7		]	};
    key <AB08> {	[     comma,	U13E2		]	};
    key <AB09> {	[    period,	U13B4		]	};
    key <AB10> {	[     	U13C2,	U13C9	]	};

    key <BKSL> {	[ 	U13E9,  U13EE	]	};
    key <CAPS> {	[ Caps_Lock	]	};
    // End alphanumeric section
};

Then in xorg.conf modify the inputdevice settings for "XkbLayout"

Code:

Section "inputdevice"
   Option "XkbLayout"  "yourkbdsymbol, cherokeekbdsymbol"
EndSection

Make sure yourkbdsymbol is the word that already exists in the XkbLayout option. Elsewise, you will only be able to enter text in Cherokee and the unicode fonts do not work under any terminal/shell.

In the xfce (4.x.x, I don't know if any other versions do it) window manager, you can right click on the xfce panel, click on Add New Item in the menu, then scroll down and select Keyboard Layout Switcher. That will allow you to click on an icon on the xfce panel to switch between keyboard layouts.

NOTE: When I learn more about xkb, or if I learn how to use xmodmap, I will change the entire layout of the symbol file, and probably other files, too.

For now, the layout is based on the Cheroke Nation Official Font and a keyboard layout can be viewed here http://arapaho.nsuok.edu/~lindee/cherokee/

Final:

When I am finished creating the keyboard layout, if it's possible, the keyboard will be similar to this...

key1+key2 = Cherokee unicode character.
Where key1 will be any character c,d,g,h,j,k,l,m,n,s,t,w,y,z

and key2 will be a,e,i,o,u,v

And also

key1+key2+key3 = Cherokee unicode character.

key1 will be d,g,h,k,q,t
key2 will be h,l,s,w,z,u
key3 will be a,e,i,o,u,v

For the characters dl_, gw_/kw_/qu_, tl_, ts_/dz_/ch_, hna, hl_/tl_
Where _ represents any of the 6 vowels used in Cherokee.

If anyone would like to give me some friendly advice on how to do this, or what I should read in order to be able to accomplish it, I'd appreciate it. I've given up on xkb for the time being. Everything I've found has been rather difficult to understand, but I will continue reading up on it every once in a while.

ᏩᏙ
Thanks.

<Edit 1/11/09>

I have learned a bit more and created an even better keyboard layout, one that does 'not' use the shift key, instead the shift key is used for typing in English/Romanized script, and the windows keys are used for typing capital letters.

Note, for some reason that I am too much of a noob to know why, in Zenwalk one would use uim where as in Ubuntu and perhaps others one would use xim. From what I gather you will need to make sure your system has it and if not look up in the repositories for your distro to see if you can find one of them. Then click on this link http://support.zenwalk.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=20601 and hopefully I've written it well enough to guide someone in how to use it. Of course there's lots of information out there on xim, perhaps even uim (I pretty much just guessed it would work and tried it out and got lucky, Ha ha).
I have, also, written a new file to replace the one I wrote here. Instead it has two keyboard layouts created on it. One is the one I posted above, and the second one uses only the 26 characters of the keyboard, unshifted, to type in Cherokee. Just read the .XCompose file in the code and you should be able to figure out how to use the keyboard layout. Hopefully I have it well documented, if not, eh, just tell me and maybe I can fix it...

ᎤᎵᎮᎵᏍᏗ ᎤᏬᏪᎶᏗ ᎬᏗ ᏣᎳᎩ...

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Well, I've got more news for anyone who'd like to extend Cherokee beyond X (or below X,

). I've got a font which works in the console, however, certain kernels or drivers don't work with it and unfortunately I don't have that much knowledge on how to fix it as of yet.

cwy1-16.psfu

Also, I began using a different layout for typing Cherokee on X that is more DVORAK like. All the vowels are on the left side and the consonants, except for Ꮤ, Ꭷ, Ꮦ, Ꮨ, Ꮬ, and Ꮝ, are located on the right side. The only character that will be fairly out of place is the semicolon (';') which is now located at the "z" key.

chr xkb symbol file.

Code:

partial alphanumeric_keys
xkb_symbols "basic" {

    name[Group1]= "Cherokee / US";

    // Alphanumeric section
    key <TLDE> { [       grave,   asciitilde	             ] };
    key <AE01> { [           1,       exclam                 ] };
    key <AE02> { [           2,           at                 ] };
    key <AE03> { [           3,   numbersign                 ] };
    key <AE04> { [           4,       dollar                 ] };
    key <AE05> { [           5,      percent                 ] };
    key <AE06> { [           6,  asciicircum                 ] };
    key <AE07> { [           7,    ampersand                 ] };
    key <AE08> { [           8,     asterisk                 ] };
    key <AE09> { [           9,    parenleft                 ] };
    key <AE10> { [           0,   parenright                 ] };
    key <AE11> { [       minus,   underscore                 ] };
    key <AE12> { [       equal,         plus                 ] };
    key <AD01> { [       q,    Q,	U0242		     ] };  // Glottal stop
    key <AD02> { [       w,    W,	U13CD		] };
    key <AD03> { [       e,    E,	U13A4           ] };
    key <AD04> { [       r,    R,	U13A3           ] };
    key <AD05> { [       t,    T,	U13D4		] };
    key <AD06> { [       y,    Y,	U13EF           ] };
    key <AD07> { [       u,    U,	U13B3           ] };
    key <AD08> { [       i,    I,	U13E3           ] };
    key <AD09> { [       o,    O,	U13CC           ] };
    key <AD10> { [       p,    P,	U13C6           ] };
    key <AD11> { [ bracketleft,    braceleft                 ] };
    key <AD12> { [bracketright,   braceright                 ] };
    key <AC01> { [       a,    A,	U13A0, U02E5    ] };  // U02E5-E8  tone marker symbols.
    key <AC02> { [       s,    S,	U13A5, U02E6    ] };
    key <AC03> { [       d,    D,	U13A2, U02E7    ] };
    key <AC04> { [       f,    F,	U13A1, U02E8    ] };
    key <AC05> { [       g,    G,	U13A9		] };
    key <AC06> { [       h,    H,	U13E9           ] };
    key <AC07> { [       j,    J,	U13AD           ] };
    key <AC08> { [       k,    K,	U13A6           ] };
    key <AC09> { [       l,    L,	U13D3           ] };
    key <AC10> { [   semicolon,        colon,   U13BE,    colon                 ] };
    key <AC11> { [  apostrophe,     quotedbl            ] };
    key <AB01> { [       z,    Z,       semicolon	] };
    key <AB02> { [       x,    X,	U13DC		] };		// dla
    key <AB03> { [       c,    C,	U13D6           ] };		// te
    key <AB04> { [       v,    V,	U13D8           ] };		// ti
    key <AB05> { [       b,    B,	U13A7          ] };		// ka
    key <AB06> { [       n,    N,	U13DD           ] };
    key <AB07> { [       m,    M,	U13B9           ] };
    key <AB08> { [       comma,         less            ] };    
    key <AB09> { [      period,      greater                 ] };
    key <AB10> { [       slash,     question                 ] };
    key <BKSL> { [   backslash,          bar                 ] };

  key <LWIN> { [ ISO_Level3_Lock ] };     // Press LWIN to switch between US and Cherokee keyboard layouts.
};

.XCompose file.

Code:

# ~/.XCompose
# This file defines custom Compose sequences for Unicode characters

# Import default rules from the system Compose file:
# include "/usr/share/X11/locale/en_US.UTF-8/Compose"

# ga + ga = gv
<U13A6> <U13A6> : U13AC

<U13A6> <U13A0>	: U13A6
<U13A6> <U13A1>	: U13A8 
<U13A6> <U13A2>	: U13A9
<U13A6> <U13A3>	: U13AA
<U13A6> <U13A4>	: U13AB
<U13A6> <U13A5>	: U13AC

# gw  
<U13C6> <U13C6>	: U13CA
<U13C6> <U13A0>	: U13C6
<U13C6> <U13A1>	: U13C7
<U13C6> <U13A2>	: U13C8
<U13C6> <U13A3>	: U13C9
<U13C6> <U13A4>	: U13CA
<U13C6> <U13A5>	: U13CB

#In the Nahuatl language, if a syllable ends in uc it is pronounced almost like the kw in
# Cherokee ulvkwdi.
#w + k = kwi
<U13E9> <U13A7>  : U13C8

# ha + ha = hi
<U13AD> <U13AD> : U13AF

<U13AD> <U13A0>	: U13AD 
<U13AD> <U13A1>	: U13AE
<U13AD> <U13A2>	: U13AF
<U13AD> <U13A3>	: U13B0
<U13AD> <U13A4>	: U13B1
<U13AD> <U13A5>	: U13B2

# la + la = lv
<U13B3> <U13B3>  : U13B8

<U13B3> <U13A0>	: U13B3 
<U13B3> <U13A1>	: U13B4
<U13B3> <U13A2>	: U13B5
<U13B3> <U13A3>	: U13B6
<U13B3> <U13A4>	: U13B7
<U13B3> <U13A5>	: U13B8

# ma + ma = ma
<U13B9> <U13B9> : U13B9

<U13B9> <U13A0>	:U13B9 
<U13B9> <U13A1>	: U13BA
<U13B9> <U13A2>	: U13BB
<U13B9> <U13A3>	: U13BC
<U13B9> <U13A4>	: U13BD

# na + ha = nah
<U13BE> <U13AD> : U13C0
# na + na = nv
<U13BE> <U13BE> : U13C5
# ha + na = hna
<U13AD> <U13BE> : U13BF

<U13BE> <U13A0>	: U13BE 
<U13BE> <U13A1>	: U13C1
<U13BE> <U13A2>	: U13C2
<U13BE> <U13A3>	: U13C3
<U13BE> <U13A4>	: U13C4
<U13BE> <U13A5>	: U13C5

# sa + sa = sv
<U13CC> <U13CC> : U13D2
#s + a, e, i, o, u, v
<U13CC> <U13A0>	: U13CC
<U13CC> <U13A1>	: U13CE
<U13CC> <U13A2>	: U13CF
<U13CC> <U13A3>	: U13D0
<U13CC> <U13A4>	: U13D1
<U13CC> <U13A5>	: U13D2

# da + da = dv
<U13D3> <U13D3> : U13DB
#d + a, e, i, o, u, v
<U13D3> <U13A0>	:U13D3 
<U13D3> <U13A1>	: U13D5
<U13D3> <U13A2>	: U13D7
<U13D3> <U13A3>	: U13D9
<U13D3> <U13A4>	: U13DA
<U13D3> <U13A5>	: U13DB

# tl
<U13DD> <U13A0>	: U13DD
<U13DD> <U13A1>	: U13DE
<U13DD> <U13A2>	: U13DF
<U13DD> <U13A3>	: U13E0
<U13DD> <U13A4>	: U13E1
<U13DD> <U13A5>	: U13E2
<U13DD> <U13DD> : U13E2

# tsa + tsa = tsv
<U13E3> <U13E3> : U13E8
#j + a, e, i, o, u, v
<U13E3> <U13A0>	:U13E3 
<U13E3> <U13A1>	: U13E4
<U13E3> <U13A2>	: U13E5
<U13E3> <U13A3>	: U13E6
<U13E3> <U13A4>	: U13E7
<U13E3> <U13A5>	: U13E8

#wa + wa = wv
<U13E9> <U13E9>  : U13EE
#w + a, e, i, o, u, v
<U13E9> <U13A0>	:U13E9 
<U13E9> <U13A1>	: U13EA
<U13E9> <U13A2>	: U13EB
<U13E9> <U13A3>	: U13EC
<U13E9> <U13A4>	: U13ED
<U13E9> <U13A5>	: U13EE

#ya + ya = yv
<U13EF> <U13EF>  : U13F4

<U13EF> <U13A0>	:U13EF 
<U13EF> <U13A1>	: U13F0
<U13EF> <U13A2>	: U13F1
<U13EF> <U13A3>	: U13F2
<U13EF> <U13A4>	: U13F3
<U13EF> <U13A5>	: U13F4

Posted 04-05-2011 at 01:18 AM by Mol_Bolom Mol_Bolom is offline

Updated 04-05-2011 at 02:11 PM by Mol_Bolom