It is time to standardize the Chuvash Keyboard Layout

Proto-Bulgarian Runes. Wonder if they are supported in Unicode :)

Proto-Bulgarian Runes (Chuvash language is the closest language to the Proto-Bulgar language). Wonder if they are supported in Unicode :)

The Chuvash Computer Keyboard layouts have existed since 2001, but due to the lack for Unicode support we were forced to use the look-alike letters from other latin-based keyboard layouts. On Linux The Chuvash keyboard layout was added in 2007 and Linux is still the only operating system that has a native keyboard layout for Chuvash language. On Windows we have used the Keyboard Layout Creator and distributed it as an executable file.

Today, when Windows XP is not supported anymore, the majority of users now have full support for the correct Chuvash letters from the Extended Cyrillic table. These four Chuvash letters are “additional” to the Russian alphabet: Ӑ, Ӗ, Ҫ and Ӳ.

Now when new “keyboards” appear on Android, in web browser (they use the standardized letters) and hopefully in Windows and iOS, we have to consider put the correct letters into the keyboard layouts. For Linux the /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/ru file has to be updated:

// Chuvash language layout
// Anatoly Mironov @mirontoli
partial alphanumeric_keys
xkb_symbols &quot;cv&quot; {
    include &quot;ru(winkeys)&quot;

    name[Group1]= &quot;Chuvash&quot;;

    key.type[group1]=&quot;FOUR_LEVEL&quot;;

    key        &lt;AD03&gt; {        [      Cyrillic_u,	Cyrillic_U,
                            0x010004f3,    0x010004f2      ]       };
    key        &lt;AD05&gt; {        [      Cyrillic_ie,     Cyrillic_IE,
                       0x010004d7,	0x010004d6     ]       };
    key        &lt;AC04&gt; {        [      Cyrillic_a,	Cyrillic_A,
                          0x010004d1,  0x010004d0      ]       };
    key        &lt;AB03&gt; {        [      Cyrillic_es,     Cyrillic_ES,
                            0x010004ab,    0x010004aa      ]       };

    include &quot;level3(ralt_switch)&quot;
};

// Chuvash language layout

// Anatoly Mironov @mirontoli

partial alphanumeric_keys

xkb_symbols "cv" {

include "ru(winkeys)"

name[Group1]= "Chuvash";

key.type[group1]="FOUR_LEVEL";

key <AD03> { [ Cyrillic_u, Cyrillic_U,

0x010004f3, 0x010004f2 ] };

key <AD05> { [ Cyrillic_ie, Cyrillic_IE,

0x010004d7, 0x010004d6 ] };

key <AC04> { [ Cyrillic_a, Cyrillic_A,

0x010004d1, 0x010004d0 ] };

key <AB03> { [ Cyrillic_es, Cyrillic_ES,

0x010004ab, 0x010004aa ] };

include "level3(ralt_switch)"

};

Impact

This switch will have a huge impact on the Chuvash language. Much of content on forums, websites and Chuvash Wikipedia will be hardly searchable. But we have to do it, to standardize and prepare for the future. The Chuvash language Committee is not against it, despite it has not been updated the guidelines for using letters from 2009.

Edit 2014-04-30

The bug in the freedesktop bugzilla was solved very quickly. In fact, in the new Ubuntu 14.04 you’ll find a correct keyboard layout:

Here is the source code:

partial alphanumeric_keys
xkb_symbols &quot;cv&quot; {
    include &quot;ru(winkeys)&quot;

    name[Group1]= &quot;Chuvash&quot;;

    key.type[group1]=&quot;FOUR_LEVEL&quot;;

    key        &lt;AD03&gt; {        [      Cyrillic_u,	Cyrillic_U,
                          U04F3,    U04F2      ]       };
    key        &lt;AD05&gt; {        [      Cyrillic_ie,     Cyrillic_IE,
                          U04D7,    U04D6     ]       };
    key        &lt;AC04&gt; {        [      Cyrillic_a,	Cyrillic_A,
                          U04D1,    U04D0      ]       };
    key        &lt;AB03&gt; {        [      Cyrillic_es,     Cyrillic_ES,
                          U04AB,    U04AA      ]       };

    include &quot;level3(ralt_switch)&quot;
};