Using the FirstVoices Secwepemctsin Keyboard

The keyboard described here has been designed for the Secwepemctsin language,
so that all of the special characters required by the language can be easily typed
on your PC or Mac. It is hoped that this keyboard system will encourage the use
of the language on computers, both for print and web publishing, as well as
internet correspondence and emails.
The Secwepemctsin language requires a number of characters which are not avail-
able on the standard English keyboard, but these letters do have standard Unicode
values. Unicode is a numbering system by which computers index writing sys-
tems. To accommodate Secwepemctsin’s extra letters, some of the standard keys
have been given new values, or modified so that they also function as accent
keys. The accompanying Keyboard Map explains what additions have been made.
To type these characters, you must install a keyboard driver – a program which
reorganises how your physical keyboard works – as well as a Unicode font.
Please follow the installation instructions below to set up your computer to type
in Secwepemctsin. For some Unicode characters to appear at all, you must be
using Windows NT/2000/XP or Mac 10.2 Jaguar or 10.3 Panther. Earlier PC and
Mac operating systems do not support Unicode technology sufficiently.

Installing Unicode Fonts

Please see the welcome page at www.firstvoices.com for a list of Unicode font
recommendations.

Windows installation procedure (XP)

Click on Start > Control Panel on the taskbar at the bottom left of your
desktop. Select “Fonts” from the Control Panel. From the drop-down menus,
choose File > Install New Font. Find the Unicode font you wish to instal in
the folder or drive where the font file is located. Highlight the font and click
OK. The font should now be available in any Windows application.

Mac installation procedure

New fonts must be installed in the Fonts folder, inside the Library folder on
your hard drive.

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Installing the Windows Secwepemctsin Keyboard
1.To write the Secwepemctsin language on your Windows computer, you need
to install the Secwepemctsin FirstVoices Keyman keyboard software. This
program re-assigns the values of the keys on your keyboard, so that the special
characters and accents used in the language can be typed. This Secwepemctsin
keyboard software is available for global distribution under a special licensing
agreement between FirstVoices and Tavultesoft, the creators of Keyman
Software. Follow the instructions below to install the Secwepemctsin
FirstVoices Keyman keyboard on your PC.
2.The Secwepemctsin keyboard is installed using the file:
secwepemctsin.exe (Keyman executable) – assuming you do not already
have a different FirstVoices Keyman keyboard installed on your system. The
following is an installation walk through:
• Screen 1) Tavultesoft Keyman Setup. Click Install.
• Screen 2) Welcome. Click Next.
• Screen 3) License. First make sure the Accept this license box is
checked, and then click Next.
• Screen 4) Installation Directory. Unless you wish the Keyman files to be
located in some specific directory, accept the default and click Next.
• Screen 5) Setup Complete. Two check boxes are on this screen: the first,
Start Keyman Immediately is self explanatory, the second, Start Keyman
with Windows means that every time you turn on your computer,
Keyman and the Secwepemctsin keyboard will load automatically.
3.If you have a FirstVoices Keyman keyboard already installed on your
computer, contact FirstVoices for a copy of the file secwepemctsin.kmp.
4.If you have the standard Tavultesoft version of Keyman (i.e. not FirstVoices
Keyman), you may still install the FirstVoices Secwepemctsin keyboard. Note
that there will now be two separate versions of Keyman on your computer;
one will not interfere with the other, however you may only be running one
version at a time. A FirstVoices keyboard cannot be installed onto the standard
version of Keyman.
5.The keyboards can be turned on and off at will by either left clicking the
icon and choosing the Secwepemctsin keyboard or No Keyman Keyboard
(which will revert to English or whatever language keyboard is the default on
your machine). You can also set up hotkeys to switch between keyboards
more quickly. This can be done on the Keyman configuration box, which can
be accessed by right clicking the icon.

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 Installing the Mac Secwepemctsin Keyboard
The following instructions are for Macs using the 10.2 Jaguar and 10.3
Panther operating systems only:
1. Double click the Hard Drive icon, then open the Library folder.
2. Drag the file secwepemctsin.keylayout into the Keyboard Layouts
folder. Save and quit all of the applications currently running, as the keyboard
will not be available until the next time you run a given program. To be sure,
a reboot of the system will make the keyboard accessible.
3. Open your computer’s System Preferences. Under the Personal header, click
on the International icon and select Input Menu. In the list of flags, find
Secwepemctsin beside a keyboard icon. Check the button beside the
Secwepemctsin keyboard icon.

Secwepemctsin Keyboard Assignments

The following keys have been given additional duties so that they may type
special letters.
• The apostrophe key ' when typed before a letter produces an apostrophe
(ejective) accent.
ʼ · m >  ʼ · w >  ʼ · Y > Y̕
• The slash key / when typed before a letter produces an acute accent.
/ · a > á / · e > é / · U > Ú

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Unicode and the Secwepemctsin language
What is Unicode?
Unicode is neither a font nor a keyboard. It is instead a map or chart of (what
will one day be) all of the characters, letters, symbols, punctuation marks, etc.
necessary for writing all of the world's languages past and present. The
keyboard follows the standard Unicode encoding. Each character (i.e. letter,
number, punctuation, etc.) has been given a number. Thus the letter capital S
is coded “53”, and the numeral 9 is “39”. These codes are standard across the
internet, no matter what type of computer or operating system you may be
using.
If you have ever tried typing in a non-English language, you may recall
memorising a set of numbers that signify accented letters. So that alt-130 is é,
and alt-160 is á. This numbering system is called ASCII, which has been with
us since the DOS days. A later mapping called ANSI, expanded on ASCII
giving us capital versions of the accented letters Á Ó, and a few extra glyphs
for western European languages.
Unicode expands the repertoire of characters, providing enough space for at
least 96,382 different symbols. Like the above two systems, each character is
given a number, so that the glottal stop “ʔ” is 660, and the slashed-l “ł” is
“322”. Note that all Unicode numbers are hexadecimal, meaning that one
counts by 16’s not 10’s, not a problem as users really don’t need to know the
mapping numbers anyway. So, although not totally comprehensive, Unicode
covers most of the world’s writing systems. Most importantly, the mapping is
consistent, so that any user anywhere on any computer has the same encoding
as everyone else.

Which computers can use Unicode?

Basically, as far as Windows goes, only NT, 2000, and XP take advantage of
Unicode. In these operating systems, it is possible to read, type, print, etc.
using Unicode mappings, providing of course that you have the appropriate
font and keyboard drivers. The 95, 98, me Windows versions do allow users
to view Unicode, with up to date web browsers. For the purposes of this
keyboard, Mac users should be running 10.2 Jaguar and 10.3 Panther
operating systems.

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Unicode Limitations
First, Unicode is simply a map, it is not a font, nor is it software that you
can install on your computer. Programs, applications, and operating systems are
either Unicode-friendly or not (or somewhere in between). If you have just
bought a new computer running Windows XP for example, some of the
characters used by your language may still be unavailable as you have not
installed a font which contains all of the required symbols. A select few fonts
do contain the full spectrum of letters used for Secwepemctsin: such as
languagegeek’s Aboriginal (Serif and Sans), Arial MS Unicode, and Titus
Cyberbit.
Second, Unicode is inconsistent with regards to which symbols get unique
codes, and which do not. All of the accented letters of the European languages
have their own code (e.g. Ő is 0150), but First Nations’ languages’ letters, like
 have to be made up from two codes, 70 (p) and 0313 (combining
apostrophe). In some cases, such as w̓, notice that the accent may not be
placed very well. Depending on the font, this may produce an unattractive
look. This is because the combining apostrophe character was not specifically
designed to go atop the p, instead the same apostrophe is to be used over
every letter: e.g. m̓ and Q̓. This factor is hugely important for languages using
an underlined g, . In most if not all Unicode fonts, the underline gets lost
inside the base of the g (e.g. g̠̱), rendering it virtually identical to the plain g.
Finally, Unicode is not complete. Several languages have yet to be encoded,
and others are only partially complete. The natural languages which are not yet
encoded will be added presently, as research determines which glyphs are
necessary. In the rare cases where a First Nation’s language uses letters which
are not in Unicode, the following choice was made. Where a language has a
character: e.g. ktunaxa’s double-barred l, , which looks similar to one used by
a different language: the Khoisan letter ǂ, the latter has been substituted. If, on
the other hand, there is no graphically matching Unicode character, one has to
go outside the Unicode standard.

How can I make those accented characters look better?

It is not the expressed purpose of Unicode to ensure attractive typography, it
is simply an organisational system of the orthographies of the world’s
languages. There are a few options open to those who desire professional
looking documents.

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• It would be possible to make a special encoding for every special letter in
the language that either is absent from Unicode or has an accent that needs
to be positioned correctly. This system has the advantage that, when using a
font designed for your language, every character will appear exactly as it
should: attractive and legible. The disadvantage here is a lack of
standardisation. Other people using a different font will not necessarily be
able to read your document, email, or web-page. This method works well
however, if just before printing your document, you replace all of the
standard Unicode accent-combinations with pre-combined letters from a
special font using a small program written for your word processor or
database. The document you are currently reading has been produced using
this method, using the Aboriginal Serif font.
• If your computer has software that employs OpenType fonts, you can get
around the problem of non-standard encodings. By using an OpenType font,
the software will automatically visually position the accent properly. Yet it
will not change the Unicode value of the character. For example, the letter
Q̓ using an OpenType font and appropriate software will look like . For
this to work, you must be using a specially designed font, such as those
found at www.languagegeek.com. Furthermore, if your OpenType document
is being read by someone without similar fonts or other software, they will
not see a row of empty boxes. Instead, the standard Q̓ will appear, not too
pretty, but readable. Unfortunately, OpenType software is both rare and very
expensive at the moment, hopefully this kind of technology will be more
widely available soon.