Keyboard layouts
It is obvious that each typable writing system has to have its own keyboard layouts. In addition, there are numerous rearrangements of keyboards for specific languages and countries. Many languages require specific letters not used in other languages. As a result, most locales have their own keyboard layouts, in some cases several. The following examples are all incomplete. For alphabets with upper- and lower-case, only the lower-case is shown. No attempt has been made to indicated combining diacritics and other composed characters.
See also Keyboard Files for an explanation of Linux keyboard definitions.
Latin Alphabet
Latin keyboards mostly fall into a few basic arrangements, with many lesser variations to accommodate special characters. The most common are
QWERTY
Standard English-language keyboard
` 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - =
q w e r t y u i o p [ ] \
a s d f g h j k l ; ´
z x c v b n m , . /
Azerbaijani
` 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - =
q ü e r t y u i o p ö ğ \
a s d f g h j k l ı ə
z x c v b n m ç ş .
Vietnamese
` ă â ê ô ` ~' đ - ₫
q w e r t y u i o p ư ơ \
a s d f g h j k l ; '
z x c v b n m , . /
Dvorak
US Alternate Standard Keyboard (ASK)
` 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 [ ]
' , . p y f g c r l / = \
a o e u i d h t n s -
; q j k x b m w v z
Norwegian Dvorak
| 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 + \
å , . p y f g c r l ' ~ <
a o e u i d h t n s -
æ q j k x b m w v z
Swedish Dvorak
§ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 +
å ä ö p y f g c r l , "'
a o e u i d h t n s -
. q j k x b m w v z
French AZERTY
² & é " ' ( - è _ ç à ) =
a z e r t y u i o p ^$ *
q s d f g h j k l m ù
w x c v b n , ; : !
German QWERTZ
^ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 ß
q w e r t z u i o p ü + #
a s d f g h j k l ö ä
y x c v b n m , . -
Greek
Follows various Latin layouts to some degree.
` 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - =
; ς ε ρ τ υ θ ι ο π [ ] \
α σ δ φ γ η ξ κ λ
ζ χ ψ ω β ν μ , . /
Cyrillic
There are four keyboard layouts for Russian, with variants for other languages written in Cyrillic. During the Soviet period, there were more than 200 of them. Several of the newly independent states of Central Asia have changed to other alphabets, according to national preference, including Arabic, Latin, and Mongolian. (The independent former Soviet republic of Mongolia returned to Cyrillic soon thereafter. The Chinese province of Mongolia continues to use its traditional alphabet.)
Russian
This is the standard Russian layout for Linux systems.
ё 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - =
й ц у к е н г ш щ з х ъ \
ф ы в а п р о л д ж э
я ч с м и т ь б ю /
Ukrainian
' 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - =
й ц у к е н г ш щ з х ї ґ
ф і в а п р о л д ж є
я ч с м и т ь б ю /
Mongolian
= 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 е щ
ф ц у ж э н г ш ү з к ъ !
й ы б ө а х р о л д п
я ч ё с м и т ь в ю
Uzbek
ё 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 ў қ
й ц у к е н г ш х ъ ғ ҳ \
ф з в а п р о л д ж э
я ч с м и т ь б ю .
Tajik
ё 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - =
й ц у к е н г ш ¸ з х ъ \
ф ы в а п р о л д ж э
я ч с м и т ь б ю /
Indic
- Bengali
- Devanagari
- Gujarati
- Gurmukhi
- Kannada
- Malayalam
- Oriya
- Tamil
- Telugu
Other
Armenian
՝ ֆ ձ – , ։ ՞ ․ ՛ ) օ է ղ
ճ փ բ ս մ ո ւ կ ը թ ծ ց »
ջ վ գ ե ա ն ի տ հ պ ր
ժ դ չ յ զ լ ք խ շ ռ
Thai
Kedmanee
_ ๅ / - ภ ถ ุ ึ ค ต จ ข ช
ๆ ไ ำ พ ะ ั ี ร น ย บ ล ฃ
ฟ ห ก ด เ ้ ่ า ส ว ง
ผ ป แ อ ิ ื ท ม ใ ฝ
Pattachote
_ = ๒ ๓ ๔ ๕ ู ๗ ๘ ๙ ๐ ๑ ๖
็ ต ย อ ร ่ ด ม ว แ ใ ฌ ๅ
้ ท ง ก ั ี า น เ ไ ข
บ ป ล ห ิ ค ส ะ จ พ
TIS-820.2538
๏ ฿ / - ภ ถ ุ ึ ค ต จ ข ช
ๆ ไ ำ พ ะ ั ี ร น ย บ ล ฅ
ฟ ห ก ด เ ้ ่ า ส ว ง
ผ ป แ อ ิ ื ท ม ใ ฝ
Lao
ຢ ຟ ໂ ຖ ຸ ູ ຄ ຕ ຈ ຂ ຊ ໍ ົ ໄ ຳ ພ ະ ິ ີ ຣ ນ ຍ ບ ລ ໜ ັ ຫ ກ ດ ເ ້ ່ າ ສ ວ ງ ຜ ປ ແ ອ ຶ ື ທ ມ ໃ ຝ
Burmese
` ၁ ၂ ၃ ၄ ၅ ၆ ၇ ၈ ၉ ၀ - ၒ
ဪ ဲ ာ ီ ူ ဗ ဟ ဂ ဒ ဇ ဍ ည ၎
ဩ ဧ ္ ိ ု ပ ရ က တ စ ဋ
၌ ့ မ န ဗ လ သ , . /
More keyboards needed.
- Hebrew and Yiddish
- Arabic and related, including Hausa, Farsi, and more
- Georgian
- Ethiopic
- Thaana
- Sinhala
- Tibetan
- Mongolian traditional alphabet
- Korean Hangeul
- Chinese Zhuyin (Bopomofo)
- Japanese kana
- Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics
- Cherokee
- Yoruba
- Igbo
See also Input methods for typing languages whose character sets will not fit on a single keyboard layout.