This Gondi (Devanagari) Keyman keyboard has been designed for use on +physical keyboards (laptops, etc.) as well as hand-held touch devices (such as +smart phones, tablets, etc.) for the Gondi language spoken in the districts of +Yavatmal, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli and Aheri of Maharashtra State in central India.
+ +Touch Keyboard layout
+ +Default Layer
+ +All Gondi words can be typed on the default layer (without the need for invoking +Shift).
+ +Shift Layer
+ +The Shift layer contains Hindi and Marathi-specific characters like ख घ झ छ which are not required for Gondi, but could be useful to +type borrowed Hindi and Marathi language words.
+ +Numeric Layer
+ +The Numeric 123 layer contains the full +range of Arabic digits, Devanagari digits (accessible through a long-press) and +other important symbols and lesser used punctuation characters.
+ +The touch layout has some additional functionality of providing short-cuts +for commonly used combinations of consonant clusters. For example, holding (long +press) the ज character key will +show various commonly used Gondi combinations: ज़ ज्क ज्त ज्न ज्र +
+ +Similarly, holding (long-press) the स character key will show common combinations for that letter:
+ +Although the vowel matra forms are not displayed, the keyboard will +automatically put the diacritic form on a preceding consonant. So, tapping क ओ will produce the +syllable को and tapping इ त ् त ए क ए will produce the word इत्तेके (itteke).
+ +
= इत्तेके
Finally, holding (long press) the . (full-stop or period) key provides other Roman and Devanagari punctuation marks:
+ +Physical Keyboard Layout
+ +The physical keyboard (for use on desktop computers) is rather different to +the touch layout, and follows the standard WinScript keyboard layout +followed by NLCI’s range of keyboards. With a few exceptions, these work +more-or-less phonetically, so kyping k +gives क, and typing a +gives अ, and so on. The x +key is used for the virama (vowel-killer, or consonant joiner), so typing k x gives क् and typing k x k gives क्क.
+ +Default layer:
+ +With Shift depressed:
+ +It is sometimes necessary in the Gondi language to use a halant +part way through a word, (for example, वेय्लोक्नल) especially on a suffix boundary. In order +to do this, one must press the x key twice +(to add the Zero-Width Non Joiner U+200C). So, for the previous example word, +typing v e y x l o k x x n l gives वेय्लोक्नल.
+ +This table shows how to obtain the various combinations needed:
+ +|
+ Keystrokes + |
+
+ Result + |
+
|
+ k |
+
+ क |
+
|
+ k x |
+
+ क् |
+
|
+ k x k |
+
+ क्क |
+
|
+ k x x k |
+
+ क्क |
+
|
+ [ r x q u r i |
+
+ दर्तुरि |
+
Gondi tends to use the regular digits 0-9, but if the Devanagari digits are required, these can be typed by pressing the ` key (back-tick or tilde ~ key to the left of digit 1) prior to the digit. So pressing `1 would give १ and `2 would give २ and so on.
+ +The underscore key _ (shift+hyphen) is used to produce ॡ so if an underscore is required, then press the hyphen (or dash) key twice: - - produces _
+ ++ +