From: William J Poser (wjposer@ldc.upenn.edu)
Date: Mon Apr 30 2007 - 12:57:35 CST
Marnen Laibow-Koser wrote:
>I believe you're missing the point here. I do a lot of multilingual
>typing on Mac OS X. It's easy enough to switch keyboard mappings,
>but that's really not the problem. The problem is that once
>switched, it's annoying to squint at Keyboard Viewer to see what
>character is on which key. And Mac OS users are fortunate in that
>Keyboard Viewer is easily accessible: I *still* haven't found a
>reliable equivalent in Kubuntu or Windows XP.
I agree that a keyboard like this would be very handy for those
who switch writing systems frequently. However, it is not clear to
me that this is relevant to the original question, which was
whether the lack of such a keyboard is the sticking point for
widespread use of minority languages. A great many minority language
users do not need to switch back and forth constantly - if they are
going to use their minority language, they just need a keyboard
that lets them enter it efficiently. For such users the switching
issue is not important - what is important, beyond being able to
obtain the keyboard mapping they need, is LEARNING the minority language
mapping, for which keycap covers and on-screen keymaps may be quite
adequate. Once they learn it, they will touch type, so the issues
raised about keycap covers falling off and becoming dirty and so forth
are not really relevant.
It is true that SOME minority language users will also have to write
frequently in a larger language. If they need to switch back and
forth frequently between languages with incompatible keyboard
mappings, something like the Optimus would be valuable. The question is,
how large a proportion fall into this category, and how large a
proportion fall into the category of those who would largely or entirely
write in their minority language if they could.
As I said before, I'm not unappreciative of this keyboard. I'd like
to have one. What I question is whether it is the key to enabling
significantly greater use of minority languages. The fact that for
certain classes of users who write in several languages or who
frequently mix languages within documents this kind of keyboard wold
be very useful does not necessarily make it a key to writing in
minority languages.
I suspect that, unfortunately, the relevant data does not exist.
What I would like to see is evidence that, e.g., speakers of Hausa
in Niger would, if they could, write (almost) entirely in Hausa,
or would, nonetheless, write mostly in French, or would write
50% of the time in French and 50% in Hausa. Does anyone know of such
data?
Bill
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