FrKeys XP
This is the FrKeys documentation.
As with all languages, most of the Indic letters are placed on the key whose English letter corresponds most closely. Though the Indic writing systems are in some ways the most complicated that FrKeys supports, they map in a fairly logical way to the English keyboard, and so should be easy to learn. Combinations of Shift, Ctrl and Alt are used to distinguish between several letters and symbols that are similar to one English letter.
Aspirated consonants (typically transliterated to the Latin alphabet with an ‘h’) are obtained by pressing the letter with Alt.
Retroflex (‘cerebral’) consonants (typically transliterated to the Latin alphabet with a double consonant or a dot underneath the consonant) are obtained by pressing the letter with Shift. (For aspirated retroflex consonants, press both Shift and Alt with the letter key.)
Other consonant forms are obtained in some cases using the Ctrl key.
The independent (standalone) forms of vowels are obtained by pressing the Shift key with the appropriate letter; the corresponding attached (maatraa) form is obtained without the Shift key.
Short vowels are obtained without the Alt or Ctrl keys. Long vowels are obtained with Alt; nasalised (‘candra’) vowels and ‘ai’ and ‘au’ are obtained with Ctrl.
The vocalic forms of ‘R’ and ‘L’ are obtained by pressing the appropriate key with Ctrl. As with vowels, hold down Shift for the standalone (non-maatraa) form, and/or Alt for the long form.
The Indic scripts have a wide variety of conjuncts, or combined letters. These are usually used where two or more consonants are pronounced together without an intervening vowel (as, for example, between the ‘n’ and ‘d’ of the word ‘Hindi’). Fortunately Windows is capable of forming these conjuncts automatically, so it is not necessary to have a way of typing each combination separately: all that is needed is to type the first consonant of the conjunct, followed by a virama (on the ‘-’ key), followed by the next consonant of the conjunct.