Hausa Keyboard For Mac

Mac keyboards have two special keys in the lowest row, to the left of the spacebar. One is labeled option, and to its right is a key with an Apple logo and a fan symbol, known as the Command key in Apple-ese. On PC keyboards, these two keys are the Windows key and the Alt key, respectively. If you just plug a PC keyboard into a Mac, the Windows.

I wanted to share with you a keyboard layout I designed to type Yoruba on Mac computers. I tried to keep it as close as possible to the regular keyboard layout I use for English so as to avoid having to constantly switch keyboards – which I already do enough of between English and French…
Here is how it works:

  • All the keys remain the same as on the regular U.S. keyboard
  • To add a dot under e, s, and o: ALT + letter (eg ALT + o to type ọ).
  • Capital s, e or o with dot: SHIFT + ALT + letter
  • High tone (mi): ALT + h
  • Low tone (do): ALT + l

Tone marks are inserted after the letter.

You can download the keyboard layout here. All you need to do is to drop it into Library > Keyboard Layouts and select it in your language & text preference window.

I used Ukelelewhich was developed by John Brownie (SIL). If you’re looking to create a keyboard layout, I definitely recommend this software. It’s easy to use and comes with a comprehensive user’s manual, not to mention the fantastic support provided by the users’ community. I was a bit sad not to have another upcoming keyboard layout project 😉

Let me know what you think! I hope you’ll have as much fun typing as I did designing this keyboard layout.

It’s also worth mentioning that Tom Gewecke made a combined layout that allows one to type both Yoruba and Hausa on the same keyboard. More on his blog!

Mac keyboard layouts for Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba

This implements a keyboard layout for macOS for the three major languages of Nigeria: Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba.

To install:

  1. Download Hausa-Igbo-Yoruba.dmg.
  2. Double click Hausa-Igbo-Yoruba.dmg.
  3. Drag the icon Hausa-Igbo-Yoruba.bundle to the icon 'Drag here to install'. You will be asked for your password to complete this action.
  4. Click the top Apple  menu, and then System Preferences.
  5. Click Keyboard.
  6. Click Input Sources, then +.
  7. Select your language: 'Hausa', 'Igbo', or 'Yoruba'.
  8. Select 'Hausa - alt', 'Igbo - Alt', or 'Yoruba - alt', and then click Add.

You're ready!

To switch between keyboard layouts, use Control-Spacebar, or whatever is defined in System Preferences/Keyboard/Shortcuts/Input Sources.

To type, use the Alt key with the corresponding letters:

Vowels

  • ẹ Alt-E
  • Ẹ Alt-Shift-E
  • ị Alt-I
  • Ị Alt-Shift-I
  • ọ Alt-O
  • Ọ Alt-Shift-O
  • ụ Alt-U
  • Ụ Alt-Shift-U

Consonants

  • ɓ Alt-B
  • Ɓ Alt-Shift-B
  • ɗ Alt-D
  • Ɗ Alt-Shift-D
  • ƙ Alt-K
  • Ƙ Alt-Shift-K
  • ṅ Alt-N
  • Ṅ Alt-Shift-N
  • r̃ Alt-R
  • R̃ Alt-Shift-R
  • ṣ Alt-S
  • Ṣ Alt-Shift-S
  • ƴ Alt-Y
  • Ƴ Alt-Shift-Y

Tones

High tone

  • Also known as: acute.
  • Key: Alt-H
  • Mnemonic: 'High'.
  • Example: ị́ - Alt-I Alt-H

Low tone

  • Also known as: grave.
  • Key: Alt-L
  • Mnemonic: 'Low'.
  • Example: Ẹ̀ - Alt-Shift-E Alt-L

Middle tone

  • Also known as: macron.
  • Key: Alt-M
  • Mnemonic: 'Medium, Macron'.
  • Example: Ā - Alt-A

Rising tone

  • Also known as: caron.
  • Key: Alt-C
  • Mnemonic: 'Caron'.
  • Example: ǒ - o Alt-C

Falling tone

  • Also known as: circumflex.
  • Key: Alt-X
  • Mnemonic: 'cicumfleX'.
  • Example: û - u Alt-X
  1. The three layouts are the same. They are stored separately so that it would be easier to find them by the language name in the system preferences. The letters don't overlap, and when two people speaking different languages happen to use the same computer, it would be easier if they didn't have to switch layouts.
  2. I have no intention to declare this as a comprehensive or standard solution. This is just a quick thing to make it possible to type the biggest languages of Nigeria on Mac computers. I hope that more people who are more experienced and professional than I am will come up with better solutions. That said, I do call upon Apple to ship a typing solution for these languages, each of which is spoken by many millions of people, built into the next version of macOS. Whether it will be this layout or something else, is a separate question.
  3. If you want to type these languages on Windows, check your system preferences. There are keyboard layouts for them already built into Windows 10, although the key mapping is different from what is suggested here.
  4. I don't actually know any of these languages. I'm just trying to help people type.
  5. This keyboard layout was made with Ukelele. I thank SIL for making Ukelele available. I also thank Blossom Ozurumba and Assaf Bartov for encouraging me to make these layouts.

This software is released under the CC0 1.0 Universal license.

Use it, modify it, copy it, combine it with anything you want.

Amir E. Aharoniamir.aharoni@mail.huji.ac.ilMay 2017 App delete mac serial.