WebFOCUS Newsletter April 2004 - Global Watch: Writing Foreign Languages

Global Watch: Writing Foreign Languages

By Geneviève Monet

I was thrilled to see my name in print in the last issue of the WebFOCUS newsletter. But my name is really Geneviève Monet. It is a French name and has a grave accent on the third e. I was reminded that in its natural state the American QWERTY keyboard does not allow for diacritics.

Diacritics are also called accents. They are the various little lines, dots and squiggles that, in many languages, are written above, below or on top of certain letters to show that the letter is pronounced differently from its normal sound.

In English words there are no diacritics but the accents are politically correct when using foreign words that have not yet been “Anglicized.” One would also want to use diacritics when writing in a foreign language.

Here are some common diacritics:
é: acute accent
à: grave accent
û: circumflex accent
ü: duaeresis or trema or umlaut
ñ: tilde
ç: cedilla

On foreign keyboards such as the French AZERTY keyboard, the symbols used in French are simply part of the keyboard. Keyboards are often referred to by the first six letters on the left side of the first row of letters. Therefore on a French keyboard the Q and W are replaced with A and Z. There are a few other letters and symbols that differ from the QWERTY keyboard.

So, the question is how to get those lines, dots and squiggles on an American QWERTY keyboard.

Some software packages, such as Microsoft Word, provide for the insertion of special characters. This is a nice feature but does not help if you are not using that specific software.

Another method involves the numeric keypad. You can hold the left Alt key while typing the numerical value of the letter on the numerical keypad. The Num Lock key must be on. For example, Alt 138 will produce the “è” in my name. I know that one from memory, but I must admit that I would have to look up most values for other accented letters and symbols. In addition, it only works with numerical keypads, so those of us who use laptop computers can't use this method.

The method I use is to reconfigure Windows to use the US-international keyboard. There is a keyboard icon on my taskbar that allows me to switch the keyboard when needed. Actually, you can reconfigure Windows to use many other keyboards but if you choose to go that way you will have to cope with keys that are labelled differently from the letters that they produce.

On a US-international keyboard you can type an accented letter simply by pressing a designated accent key (also called dead keys) followed by the letter to be accented. Here is the US-international accent key:

‘ (apostrophe) = acute accent or cedilla

` (grave) = grave accent

^ (carat) = circumflex accent

“ (quotation mark) = diaresis

~ (tilde) = tilde

So, if you type the ` key followed by the a key you would get à. The apostrophe will either produce an acute accent or a cedilla based on the letter that follows. To get the quotation mark, the carat or the tilde, you need to hold down the shift key, press the dead key, let go of the shift key and press the letter. For capitalized letters, press the shift key when typing the letter.

You may ask: So how do I get a real apostrophe or quotation mark? The answer is that you type a “space” after the accent key. This is the only modification to your normal typing that is required when using the US-international keyboard.

The steps to activate the language bar and configure the US-international keyboard on Windows XP are as follows:

1. From the Start menu select Control Panel and double-click on Regional and language options.

2. Click on the Languages tab, then on the Details button to open the Text services and languages window.

3. Click on the Language bar button at the bottom to open the Language bar's settings window and check the option Show Language bar on the desktop and Show additional Language bar icons in the taskbar. Click OK to close the window.

4. To activate the US-international keyboard click the add button. Choose English (United States) in the top drop-down box and United States-international in the lower one. Click OK twice.

Note: If you close a window without clicking OK, none of the settings will take effect.

If all goes well, you will see a keyboard symbol on your taskbar. Clicking on the keyboard icon will allow you to switch to the US-international keyboard.

The US-international keyboard allows for many other international symbols by using the right alt key simultaneously with other keys. For example:

RightAlt+5 = €
Shift+RightAlt+C = ¢
RightAlt+- = ¥
Shift+RightAlt+4 = £

A useful diagram of the US-international keyboard can be found at this link: www.cortland.edu/www/icc/Keyboard.html.

Congratulations, you're all set to write in foreign languages.

‘ (apostrophe)	= acute accent or cedilla
` (grave)	= grave accent
^ (carat)	= circumflex accent
“ (quotation mark)	= diaresis
~ (tilde)	= tilde

1.	From the Start menu select Control Panel and double-click on Regional and language options.
2.	Click on the Languages tab, then on the Details button to open the Text services and languages window.
3.	Click on the Language bar button at the bottom to open the Language bar's settings window and check the option Show Language bar on the desktop and Show additional Language bar icons in the taskbar. Click OK to close the window.
4.	To activate the US-international keyboard click the add button. Choose English (United States) in the top drop-down box and United States-international in the lower one. Click OK twice.