Remapping the keyboard layout to write Etruscan
So I took up the idea of remapping and concretely put my hand to it.
As the remapping is currently for my use, it is calibrated for Linux and QWERTY keyboards, but it would certainly not be difficult at this point to prepare it also for other operating systems and layouts.
By the way: what is the point of me digitising a corpus of epigraphs with translation proposals?
At the beginning of 2023, I was suggesting the remapping of PC characters to the Unicode Old Italic block in order to write Etruscan directly with a real keyboard and not only with a screen keyboard like the TEVU. On the need to approach and study Etruscan in its own alphabet, actually I have already said.
The TEVU remains a milestone in the application of computer science to Etruscology; however, it shares, with any other on-screen keyboard, the limitation of the slowness resulting from having to enter characters with the mouse. Which is not the best when one has to transcribe epigraphs intensively.
The characters order is as shown in the image and is the same as the one designed in 2023, basically maintaining the phonetic correspondence between Latin and Etruscan letters.
In addition, the RTL pattern has been mapped on the 2 key; just type it at the beginning of each line to see the words "grow" regularly from right to left.
Of course, a left-handed font, such as e.g. the Rasna Haiku I had designed for the TEVU, is also required for an appreciable result.
Tested during these days for the digitising of a corpus of epigraphs with related translation proposals and annotations, it proved extremely effective; also because switching between the Etruscan encoding and my default Italian one is absolutely quick and painless.
Just a hint: NMT...
Stay tuned.