Romanian Diacritics

15 Apr 2008 « Go Back in Time ∞ Go Forward in Time » By: Andrei Neculau Filed under How To, Offline, Windows

Diacritics make a language what it actually is.

Romanian has a handful (and I mean exactly 5) of diacritics. And because we have been put to the test in the 90s and adapted, nowadays we are very much accustomed to see text even without diacritics and we can still read it without major problems. The issue has a long story and doesn’t make the case of this article.

With time, diacritics and Romanian keyboards have made it to general consumers though and it has been imposed in public administration. We have seen the fights for that and the improvements in the way the Windows OS handles the Romanian diacritics, may it be Vista or fixes to versions prior to Vista.

Yet, there is one more issue that remains. And that is something related to globalization.

Nowadays you buy laptops. And laptops that are being built for the region where you live in, outside Romania, or a region that you are now visiting and has discounts.

So here you are, in UK for example, buying a laptop and you notice that when you switch the keyboard layout to Romanian, it is impossible to know which key is which.

Romanian keyboard layout is based on the US keyboard layout, so a US physical keyboard is quite easy to manage with a Romanian keyboard layout. But a UK physical keyboard, or a Swedish one will be problematic, because the keys are differently placed.

This is where I come in. I admit that my practice breaks rules and standards. Nevertheless keeping only to standards and rules may be counter-productive.

I have built some keyboard layouts that give access to the Romanian diacritics, while still respecting the basic arrangement of the physical keyboard - may it be Swedish/Finnish, British, French, Italian or Spanish.

for Swedish/Finnish

This is the keyboard layout that I am using daily, since my laptop has a Swedish keyboard. I have added Polish diacritics during my Erasmus student experience in Poland.

This keyboard layout strongly resembles Romanian (Standard), in regards to how it handles Romanian diacritics.

Basics - keeps all the Swedish/Finnish keys, except the following:

ö becomes ș (s with comma)
ä becomes ț (s with comma)
å becomes ă
¨ becomes î
‘ becomes â
´ becomes ‘
` (Shift + ´) becomes *

In detail:

AltGr + e builds €
AltGr + c builds ©
AltGr + ö builds ş (s with cedilla - legacy)
AltGr + ä builds ţ (t with cedilla - legacy)
´ is now a dead key only in combination with AltGr + ´
` is now a dead key only in combination with AltGr + Shift + ´
¨ is now a dead key only in combination with AltGr + ¨
^ is now a dead key only in combination with AltGr + Shift + ¨
~ is now a dead key only in combination with AltGr + ‘

Polish features:

AltGr + p becomes a dead key, allowing for the Polish Programmers layout to kick in
z, x, c, n, a, s, l, e, o, after typing and releasing AltGr + p, will become
ż, ź, ć, ń, ą, ś, ł, ę, ó

This driver will install a keyboard layout under the name
Swedish - Romanian (Standard), Romanian (Legacy) [AltGr], Polish (Programmers) [deadkey]

AltGr because it allows Legacy diacritics with cedilla - ş and ţ - by pressing AltGr+ö and AltGr+ä
deadkey because you can have the Polish (Programmers) layout with the use of a dead key