fonts for PC

[pfreund at mum.edu]

>>         The keystrokes on Vedatype are as follows:
>> 1.  The letters a, i, u, e, o, k, g, c, j, t, d, n, p, b, m, y, r, l, v, s,
>> and h are in their respective home key positions.
>> 2.  The vocalic r is in the q position.
>>     the guttural n is in the z position.
>>     The palatal n is in the x position.
>>     The palatal s is in the f position.
>> 3.  The letters ai, au, kh, gh, ch, jh, .th, .dh, th, dh, ph and b h
>> require typing the two keystrokes shown, for "a" and "i" in order to get
>> "ai."
>> 4.  The letters aa, ii, uu, and long vocalic r are in the shift position of
>> the corresponding short vowels.
>> 5.  The retroflex letters .t, .d, .n, and .s, are in the shift position of
>> the corresponding dental letters.
>> 6.  Anusvara (.m) is in the shift-m position; visarga (.h) is in the
>> shift-h position.
>> 7.  In Vedatype, when a consonant is typed without the following short "a",
>> then a virama is added.  The virama disappears when you type "a" or any
>> other vowel.
>> 8.  A signle danda is the comma keystroke; double danda is the period.
>> Avagraha is straight single quote.
>> 9.  Anunasika is in the shift Z position.
>> 10.  There are key assignments for anunasika, pranava, pada separation, and
>> for Vedic accents.
>>
>> VedicFont is available from Yeoman Software, SU #152, Fairfield, IA 52557
>> for $34.95.  Vedatype is shareware, also available from Yeoman Software,
>> for $15, for a total of $49.95, shipping included.
>>

On Saturday, September 7, Frances Pritchett wrote


>Just for completeness, I would like to know how one would type the
>Urdu-based sounds of /fe/, /ze/, /qaaf/, /khe/, and /ghain/.  All five are
>needed for Urdu words, and the first two of course for English-derived
>words as well.  If this system is to work satisfactorily for Hindi, it can
>hardly do without these sounds.  Since the f, z, and q keys have been
>assigned to other purposes, can these letters be accessed in some other
>way?  I do not see them on the chart.

Dear Frances:

        In terms of typing Urdu or Hindi using Vedatype, it is easy to
accomodate a number of additional sounds on the keyboard:  The shift z (Z),
shift x (X), shift k (K), shift g (G), shift p (P), shift f (F), and shift
v (V) keys are all unassigned for devanagari in Vedatype.  Do you have some
suggestions which of these keystrokes would best go with which sounds?
        We have a Hindi version of VedicFont, called VedicH, which has the
ja, kha, ka, pha, ga, .da, and .dha devanagari characters all with a dot
under them.  Sanskrit is taught in our university, but not Hindi, so there
has not been a demand for a Hindi typing program, and the development of
this Hindi version of Vedatype has languished.
        If even a dozen people were interested in such a typing program it
might be worth pursuing.
        However, the Vedatype system may not be readily adaptable to Hindi
because Vedatype requires typing an "a" or other vowel after each
consonant; otherwise the program will put the successive consonants
together into a conjunct; alternatively, if there is no following
consonant, and there is no vowel, it will insert a virama.  The Hindi habit
of dropping a's may prove no end of confusion for the typist.
        Vedatype is designed for a strictly phonetic, syllabic script,
without spelling aberrations. We're not sure any script/language other than
devanagari and Sanskrit fulfills these requirements.

        Sincerely,


        Peter Freund