Table of Contents

1. Lakota Input Modes for Emacs
   1. White Hat Orthography
   2. Suggested Lakota Orthography
2. Lakota X11 Keyboard Layouts

Haú, mitákuyepi. Grant Shoshín Shangreaux emáčiyapi.

Blóketu k'uŋ héhaŋ, Lakota Summer Institute ektá waí. Pispíza waŋ wayáwa iyáye. Wamákȟaškaŋ waŋzí waŋbláke.

Lakota Input Modes for Emacs

Keyboard inputs for the Lakota language created with Emacs' quail package.

To use these input modes, put the lakota-input.el file in your load path and (require 'lakota-input), or simply evaluate the quail package you wish to add. In Emacs, C-\ will let you select an input mode, and toggle it once you have. If you wish to use a different one, use C-u C-\

White Hat Orthography

This orthography was developed by Lakota people in 1982 and used in Albert White Hat's book "Reading and Writing the Lakota Language".

Currently, this just maps the "f" key to the nasal ŋ and the "r" and "v" keys are mapped to combining dot above (ċ), and combining macron (line) above (t̄). To use them, type the letter followed by the combining diacritic you wish to use.

(quail-define-package
"white-hat" "Lakota" "Lak " t
"Input method for the White Hat orthography."
nil t nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil t)

(quail-define-rules
 ("f" ?ŋ)
 ("r" #x307)                            ; COMBINING DOT ABOVE
 ("v" #x304)                            ; COMBINING MACRON
 )

Suggested Lakota Orthography

This orthography was developed by the Lakota Language Consortium, and is used in their teaching materials such as the New Lakota Dictionary.

(quail-define-package
 "lakota-slo" "Lakota" "Lak " t
 "Input method for the Suggested Lakota Orthography.
Uses a postfix modifier key for adding accent diacritics. To add stress
to a vowel, simply type the single quote ' after the vowel. All other
characters are bound to a single key. Mitákuyepi philámayaye ló."
nil t nil nil nil nil nil nil nil nil t)

(quail-define-rules
 ;; accented vowels
 ("a'" ?á) ("A'" ?Á)
 ("e'" ?é) ("E'" ?É)
 ("i'" ?í) ("I'" ?Í)
 ("o'" ?ó) ("O'" ?Ó)
 ("u'" ?ú) ("U'" ?Ú)
 ;; consonants with hacek (wedges)
 ("c" ?č) ("C" ?Č)
 ("j" ?ȟ) ("J" ?Ȟ)
 ("q" ?ǧ) ("Q" ?Ǧ)
 ("x" ?ž) ("X" ?Ž)
 ("r" ?š) ("R" ?Š)
 ;; velar nasal n
 ("f" ?ŋ))
 ;; glottal stop
 ("''" ?’)

(provide 'lakota-input)

Lakota X11 Keyboard Layouts

The layout definitions are in the lakota file in this repo. They are essentially the same as the Emacs layouts above, except that the combining accent is a prefix. Type ' followed by the vowel.

To "install" the layouts, I put the lakota file at /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols and then added this XML section to /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.xml in the appropriate section:

<layout>
  <configItem>
    <name>lakota</name>
    <description>Lakota</description>
  </configItem>
  <variantList>
    <variant>
      <configItem>
        <name>whitehat</name>
        <shortDescription>lwh</shortDescription>
        <description>Lakota White Hat</description>
      </configItem>
    </variant>
  </variantList>
  <variantList>
    <variant>
      <configItem>
        <name>slo</name>
        <shortDescription>slo</shortDescription>
        <description>Suggested Lakota Orthography</description>
      </configItem>
    </variant>
  </variantList>
</layout>

Once that is done and you restart X, you should see the Lakota keyboard layout available in your keyboard settings.