Overview
This keyboard provides a quick and easy way to enter Ancient Egyptian
hieroglyphs as Unicode text. It is designed to bridge the gap between the
available hieroglyphic editors, which encode hieroglyphs using the Manuel de Codage standard (MdC), and the websites and programs designed for basic fonts, which will almost certainly never support the complex
formatting needed to properly display Ancient Egyptian. This keyboard emulates MdC editors as much as possible in order to be accessible to users familiar with other programs. Most of
these programs are intuitive, so new users should find the keyboard
easy to learn and use as well (see Methods for Typing Hieroglyphs for more about available typing methods).
Basic Function
The Unicode Hieroglyphic keyboard lets you type transliterated text and hieroglyphs. The keyboard outputs transliterated text using the Manuel de Codage (MdC) standard. It creates hieroglyphs from MdC transliteration or Gardiner sign list numbers each time you press Spacebar. Repeat pressing Spacebar on signs output from MdC transliteration will cycle through phonetically identical signs. Pressing Ctrl+Spacebar instead outputs a space, which will also prevent transliteration from becoming hieroglyphs.
On Screen Keyboard
This keyboard includes an On Screen Keyboard view of the MdC transliteration standard for easy reference. The On Screen Keyboard works best when associated with a QWERTY US layout.
Fonts
This is a Unicode keyboard and works with any Unicode font which has support for Ancient Egyptian transliteration and hieroglyphs. Fonts which work with this keyboard include Aegyptus and Gardiner, which install with the keyboard. To see if other fonts on your computer support the keyboard, use the Keyman Desktop Font Helper.
For more information on the Aegyptus font, refer to:
Keyboard Details
This keyboard can be used to type in three ways:
- Transliteration using MdC
- Hieroglyphs using MdC
- Hieroglyphs using Gardiner numbers
Typing Transliteration
The keyboard automatically outputs the correct MdC transliteration when typing.
Example: type anx to see ꜥnḫ.
To add a space between transliterated words use Ctrl+Spacebar. This prevents transliteration from converting into hieroglyphs.
To get the Latin letter value of a key instead of MdC transliteration, type ` before the key.
Example: type `A to get A instead of ꜣ.
To output `, type ``.
Typing Hieroglyphs Using MdC
MdC transliteration converts to hieroglyphs automatically when you press Spacebar.
Example: type Htp to see ḥtp. Press Spacebar to get 𓊵.
Some phonetic values match more than one sign. Pressing Spacebar repeatedly cycles through signs with identical phonetic values.
Example: type diSpacebar to get 𓏙. Press Spacebar again to get 𓂞.
To add a space after a sign use Ctrl+Spacebar.
Typing Hieroglyphs Using Gardiner Numbers
This keyboard also converts Gardiner numbers into hieroglyphs when you press Spacebar.
Example: type a39 to get 𓀬.
The keyboard relies on the keys you press not the transliteration output in converting Gardiner numbers into hieroglyphs.
Example: typing X3 gives ẖ3. Pressing Spacebar gives 𓏑, which is the correct output for Gardiner number X3.
Either upper or lowercase letters can be used to begin a Gardiner number, but the second letter in the AA sign list must be lowercase to prevent confusion with the A sign list.
Example: type Aa6 or aa6 to get 𓐒.
Pressing Spacebar repeatedly will not cycle through signs created from Gardiner numbers.
To add a space after a sign use Ctrl+Spacebar.