Typing in Dinka (Thuɔŋjäŋ)
In conjunction with the Dinka Language Institute of Australia (DLIA), we have developed a series of keyboard layouts for Microsoft Windows and are developing solutions for Linux. The keyboard layouts are Unicode based keyboard layouts. The DLIA opted to use Unicode rather than the 8-bit fonts
Microsoft Windows
We have used two different keyboard layout development tools to create Dinka Unicode keyboards. We've used Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC) and Tavultesoft Keyman Developer. The Keyman version of the keyboard layout is a more sophisticated
Tavultesoft Keyman
Tavultesoft Keyman allows us to develop and provide a range of flexible keyboard layouts. Keyman is a commercial product. Keyman works best on Windows 2000 and Windows XP, but can be used with Unicode keyboard layouts on older versions of Windows. Please check Keyman's FAQ on Unicode support.
Go to http://www.tavultesoft.com/keyman/ for more information on Keyman.
- Download and install Tavultesoft Keyman
- Download and install your preferred Dinka keyboard layout for Keyman.
The following layouts and help files are available:
- DLIA Dinka 2.5 Basic keyboard layout and instructions on how to type Dinka
- DLIA Dinka 2.5 keyboard layout and instructions on how to type Dinka
- Southern Sudan keyboard layout
Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC)
This tool allows use to create a keyboard layout that can be installed on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The nature of the keyboard layout that MSKLC creates places a severe limitation on its use. Breathy vowels typed with the MSKLC Dinka keyboard layout uses combining diacritics. Practically, this restricts us to using the keyboard layout on versions of Windows that support the position of combining diacritics relative to the base character. This keyboard layout should only be used with Windows XP Service Pack 2.
Linux
We are currently testing Dinka keyboard layouts on Ubuntu Linux. We have developed xkb based layouts as well as porting The Windows Keyman source files to Linux to use with Keyboard Mapping for Linux (KMFL) and SCIM. Please contact us for furthe rinformation on Linux solutions for Dinka.