IPA keyboard layouts for Mac OS X

These are keyboard layouts to make it easier to type in the International Phonetic Alphabet. There are two layouts available, one based on QWERTY, the other on Dvorak. By default, these will function as a normal keyboard; however, if Caps Lock is on, instead of typing capital letters, it'll type letters in IPA.

It's based on X-SAMPA.

• Most things are the same as X-SAMPA, including single-character sounds and modifiers with _.
• Any letter with a backslash after it, use the option key instead (e.g., ʝ is j\ in X-SAMPA, so type option-J to get it).
• Any time a ` or _< is after a letter, type it before instead (e.g., ɚ is @` in X-SAMPA, so type ` then shift-2). For d`_< (retroflex implosive) type _<`.
• For a combining tie bar, like in t͡s or t͜s, type \ (above) or shift-\ (below) between the letters.
• For a lateral click (ǁ, X-SAMPA |\|\) use option-\.
• For tones, _B _L _M _H _T give the spacing tone letters ˩ ˨ ˧ ˦ ˥. (In some fonts, these combine, so something like _L_H ˨˦ might appear as two separate characters or as a diagonal line .) For the diacritics, use option-shift while typing the second character (type this after the character you want to modify; for rising and falling, just type _R or _F without using option). A few other tone diacritics are available by using only option without shift while typing the second character.

Otherwise, the keyboard is based on my QWERTY more and Dvorak more layouts, so any symbols you can type on those can also be typed on this layout. Those layouts are in turn based on the US layouts, so use option-3 for £, option-U for umlauts, option-E for accents.

Downloading

Download the layouts

To install:

1. Depending on the browser you use, there may or may not be a folder called keylayouts-2020. If there isn't, double-click keylayouts-2020.tgz or keylayouts-2020.tar; then the folder should exist. Open the folder.
2. In Finder, open a new window, choose Go > Go to Folder (⇧⌘G), type ~/Library/Keyboard Layouts and click Go.
3. Copy the files from the keylayouts-2020 folder (don't copy the folder itself) into the Keyboard Layouts folder you just opened.
4. Log out and then log back in.
5. Then you have to enable it in System Preferences; on Mavericks, it's System Preferences > Keyboard > Input Sources > (click the plus sign) > Other, and you should see it there. It doesn't show a preview (and it may say "Keyboard layout not available" where the preview should be), but it should still work. On older systems, it may be under International instead of Keyboard.