Typing Old English
From Gemotstow
Contents |
[edit] Letters not on a standard keyboard
If you do not have a customised keyboard or other quick way of doing it, the distinct letters used in Englisc can be typed using Alt+{number}
[edit] Normal letters
| Letter | þ | Þ | ð | Ð | æ | Æ | ƿ | Ƿ |
| Alt+ | 231 | 232 | 208 | 209 | 145 | 146 | 447 | 503 |
[edit] Vowels with macrons
In authentic texts, vowels do not bear macrons. For study purposes, they are used and so might be of use here.
| Letter | ā | Ā | ē | Ē | ī | Ī | ō | Ō | ū | Ū | ȳ | Ȳ | ǣ | Ǣ |
| Alt+ | 257 | 256 | 275 | 274 | 299 | 298 | 333 | 332 | 363 | 362 | 563 | 562 | 483 | 482 |
[edit] Customising your keyboard
[edit] Macintosh OS X
For Macintosh OS X, you can place this custom-made keyboard layout into your Library > Keyboard Layouts folder, and then activate it by choosing Anglo-Saxon under your System Preferences > International menu after restarting. The file is available here.
The acute accent is alt+e then the vowel, macron is alt+a then the vowel, ȝ is alt+y, and ƿ is alt+w. Capital versions of the letters are done by using shift+ the letter needed.
And for those interested in the exotic Runic script, its keyboard layout file can be found here. It will appear as Anglo-Saxon Runic under your International pane. This layout corresponds almost identically to the Anglo-Saxon layout.
[edit] Autocorrects
An alternative, to avoid mucking your keyboard settings up, is to type text in Microsoft Word or similar. Programme a series of "Autocorrect" options, but make sure they will not be triggered accidentally while typing something else. The "#" symbol is useful.
[edit] For example:
- th# might autocorrect to þ (the capital is dealt with by the programme).
- dh# to ð
- ae to æ
- a-# to ā
Further in that cae:
- thaet can become þæt
- thaere can become þære
- odde can become oððe
- and so forth
(For my own purposes I have programmed a macro which puts all these autocorrects onto a computer, and many more to deal with the needs of Englisc all the major European languages. Whenever the IT people reset my machine I can run the macro and restore them!) - RB 00:59, 6 August 2009 (IDT)
