About

In this project, I want to design, programme, and build a keyboard that uses a custom Middle English language layout. The design is inspired by a mix of the Icelandic and US-English keyboard layouts. I have no formal education in linguistics, but it does interest me.

The inspiration for this project came from being a bit annoyed at copying and pasting certain Middle English characters repeatedly. While looking for a layout online, I stumbled across A Keyboard Layout for Old English and Middle English by Moss Quanci, but I found it very complicated for my simple use, as I needed only the Middle English characters and extra diacritics for Old English were unnecessary for me. To add to that, I'm a Linux user (i use arch btw), so I wasn't able to use the layout as it was targeted towards Windows and Mac users. As I couldn't use it, I decided to make my own.

I should note that this project is either abandoned or postponed. This is because I discovered alt codes and didn't need to have a keyboard layout just to type some letters. It also saved me time from actually designing another layout, because researching for Middle English has taken a lot of time and I'll need more time to research the language. Perhaps I can return to this at a later time, but for now I just use the alt codes. Or just use an Icelandic keyboard layout.

Alt Codes for Letters (Linux)

So for linux I type CTRL + SHIFT + u + [Unicode] to get the character.
Here is a list of some Middle English characters with their unicode:

• Þ (uppercase thorn) is 00DE
• þ (lowercase thorn) is 00FE
• Ð (uppercase eth) is 00D0
• ð (lowercase eth) is 00F0
• Æ (uppercase ash) is 00C6
• æ (lowercase ash) is 00E6
• Ȝ (uppercase yogh) is 021C
• ȝ (lowercase yogh) is 021D

Perhaps it'll be inconvenient to memorise all off them, but I guess you could switch to a Icelandic keyboard for some of þe letters (such as þ, æ, and ð) and for þe rest idk. I'll work on a keyboard later because of þis. As I research more, I'll add more letters þat are probably important.

Design Choices

As mentioned earlier, I am not a linguist, so I am unsure which letters and accents are appropriate for þe time period Middle English was used. I will of course do my research, but do feel free to reach out to make suggestions and/or corrections. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Also mentioned earlier, þe Middle English keyboard layout is inspired by a mix of þe Icelandic and US-English keyboard layouts. I have tried to keep þe layout as close to possible to þe US-English layout while having þe extra keys from þe Icelandic layout.

Draft of layout:

Credit of original image to: https://2-5.org/pages/icelandic-basic-keyboard