The Alt-Latin keyboard layout (macOS version)
A separate version of this post for Windows users is available here.
Introduction
Researchers in Near Eastern Studies often need to include diacritics and special characters, when they write in Latin script while referring to names and ideas that originate in non-Latin-script languages like Arabic and Persian. We might, for example, be discussing the historical figure ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib; and, in an academic context, it could be desirable to write the name in a way that reflects that ʿAlī begins with the Arabic letter ʿayn (ع). Similarly, ʿAlī contains the long vowel ī (ي), as does the subsequent word Abī. Ṭālib contains the long vowel ā (ا), in addition to the letter ṭ (ط), which can be distinguished from t (ت).
This is just a reality of formal academic writing in our field; we deal with a fair amount of transliteration. It may be worth noting that some scholars make extensive use of diacritics and special characters, while others try to limit the complication that they introduce. (One compromise option is to use the macron to distinguish long vowels from short, but otherwise to stick with the basic Latin alphabet.) And there are some who think that technical transliteration is senseless outside of certain peculiar contexts. It is often pointed out that a specialist in the field will already recognize a name like ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and know exactly how it is written in Arabic; whereas a non-specialist will gain nothing, and may in fact be confused, from reading words with unfamiliar characters. Why not just write ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib? What could be more fatuous than a practice that takes extra time to benefit no one?
Such questions are above my pay grade, and if you are a fellow researcher-peon, they may be above yours, too. (Here I should pause to clarify that many groups of people may need to type with special characters for a variety of reasons, and the solution offered below—the Alt-Latin keyboard layout by Kino—is quite versatile. I am discussing the matter from the perspective of Near Eastern Studies scholarship because that is what I know.) Perhaps you have a colleague or professor who insists on the use of a certain transliteration system, e.g., that of the Library of Congress, or the widely popular standard laid out by the International Journal of Middle East Studies. Or perhaps you have to follow a given publisher’s style guide for a book or article. The result is that you will need to use some special characters.
While there are different ways of accomplishing this, including Unicode “character pickers” available online, the most efficient method by far is to use an advanced keyboard layout. Ideally, you would want a layout that is identical on the surface to what you use for everyday purposes—in this case, US English QWERTY—but gives you access a larger set of characters via modifier keys. (If the layout that you normally use is something different, I apologize for my Americentrism.) Then you could pretty much “set it and forget it.” You would have what you need at your fingertips, without any impediment the rest of the time. This is what is offered by the Alt-Latin layout, developed by someone called Kino all the way back in 2004. Below, I will go over how to download the necessary file (which I now host myself), install the layout, set it up for use in macOS, and type with it.
Who is Kino? I don’t know. Why am I writing this post? Well, for the longest time, the Alt-Latin layout was available through a web page of the University of Chicago Library. The page is still there, but it has not been updated for years, and there are several dead links. The version of Alt-Latin for Windows offered for download—which I believe has not changed since 2004—does not work with the current version of the operating system. As for the macOS version, it remains functional but would benefit from a few revisions, including a new icon. I took care of that. All credit still goes to Kino, whoever s/he may be, but if you are using macOS and want to set up the Alt-Latin keyboard, I think that what I am posting here is the best option.
Download
What you need is a ZIP archive, just a couple hundred KB in size, available at the following URL:
https://www.theobeers.com/AltLat19Mac.zip
Installation
- Extract the archive (AltLat19Mac.zip), and you should see a single file named Alt-Latin 2019.bundle.
- Move or copy the .bundle file into the following directory: /Library/Keyboard Layouts. There is a screenshot below that shows the path to this directory in Finder. Please note that you will need to authenticate with an administrator account in order to write the file. (Also, the method described here will install the Alt-Latin layout for all user accounts on the computer. If you would prefer to install it for one user only, place the .bundle file instead in the following directory: /Users/[Username]/Library/Keyboard Layouts.)
- All done!
Setup
Now that the layout is installed, you will need to configure macOS to use it. This is not difficult. Below is a guide to how it should work (as of macOS Mojave, 10.14.6).
First, open System Preferences. (You can always access this by clicking on the Apple icon at the top left of the screen, then clicking on “System Preferences…” in the drop-down menu.)
Next, open the Keyboard preference pane, and navigate to the Input Sources tab.
Click the + button, toward the lower left of the window, to add an input source.
Select the English language in the list on the left side. Alt-Latin 2019 should then be one of the items in the list of input sources on the right side. (I named the layout this way to prevent any confusion with the original version of Alt-Latin.) Click Add.
At this point, make sure that the option “Show Input menu in menu bar” (toward the bottom of the window) is selected. Exit System Preferences. In the menu bar at the top of your screen, toward the right side, there should now be an icon that you can click to switch among the input sources that you have enabled.
All done!
Usage
Now everything should be set up, and the last, and most important, question is how to use the Alt-Latin keyboard. The basic idea is that you hold the Option key (i.e., ⌥) as a modifier, and press another key to select a diacritic that you would like to use. Then, having released the modifier key, you type the letter on which you want the diacritic to be placed; and voilà, it should appear as intended.
This may sound a bit confusing, since it involves something called “dead keys.” Again, when you hold the modifier key (Option/⌥), and press the key associated with a diacritic, nothing visible will happen. The keyboard is waiting for you to enter the next letter, to which the diacritic will be applied. Once you get accustomed to this process, it can be done very quickly.
Which keys handle which diacritics? First, for reference, I will provide a screenshot of what Alt-Latin looks like in its default state. It should be identical to US English QWERTY.
The following screenshot shows what changes when you hold the Option/⌥ key.
The keys that now appear orange are the aforementioned dead keys. If you hold Option/⌥ and press the A key, for instance, you have requested a macron. Then you can release the modifier key, and type a subsequent letter of your choice, and it will appear with a macron—if available. You will not be able to place any diacritic on any letter; a finite but generous set of options is provided for. In the case of the macron, you can use Alt-Latin to apply it to seven letters: ā, ē, ḡ, ī, ō, ū, and ȳ.
You may notice that, apart from the dead keys for diacritics, you now have various other special characters at your disposal. This is an added convenience, and you can access a few more possibilities by holding Shift along with Option/⌥. See the screenshot below.
One of my personal favorite features is that if I hold the modifier key and press the hyphen key, I get an en dash (–). If I also hold Shift, it gives me an em dash (—). Who knows which of the available shortcuts you might end up using regularly? The central feature of Alt-Latin is that it employs dead keys to place a substantial variety of diacritics on letters of your choice (within reason); but its usefulness extends further.
Demonstration
I wanted to be able to show how the Alt-Latin keyboard works, for a mediocre (at best) typist who uses it regularly. So I recorded a video, in which I type out a transliteration of a few lines from a famous Persian poem by Ḥāfiẓ of Shīrāz (d. ca. 1390 CE). This is in real time, including pauses to check the Persian and occasional mistakes that I go back to correct.
If you encounter any difficulties installing or using the Alt-Latin layout, or if you have any questions, or if you think there is some way that I could improve this post, please leave a comment or get in touch with me by other means. Thanks so much for your time!
