And we are the knights who say நீ (NII)

I talked before about how Tamil is an abugida. I thought I'd talk for a bit about input methods, since once you know what the language is and now that I have suggested that what the language is should have a bigger role in how it is typed than how the language is encoded.

I'll start this post by proving how bad not doing as I suggest can be; I'll point out the current Tamil keyboard on Windows, the one that has been there since Windows 2000, in the base, shift, altgr, and ctrl+shift states:

If you are a native speaker, this might seem unfamiliar. And definitely not QWERTY phonetic. Like if you look at the N key (VK_N) you find ல, U+0bb2, TAMIL LETTER LA:

and if you look at the V key (VK_V), you'll find ந, U+0ba8, TAMIL LETTER NA:

Not really a keyboard that builds an intuitive user experience, is it?

Now sure, you could try and build a more intuitive keyboard with MSKLC, but there is s lot working against you there -- such as the fact that there isn't really a dynamic way to affect the text when you type multiple keystrokes.

And besides, if you really want that kind of keyboard you can build it right now with MSKLC, and without me. :-)

But how about if I try to build something using the same stuff I used for the Unicode and Cantonese IMEs.

This one is not yet ready for prime time (neither is the Sinhala one I am working on with the help of Thakara I mentioned before), but I can show what I have in mind so people can poke holes in the idea (or if they like it they can say that, too!).

Here it is before anything is typed:

Let's try typing the letter N, you know, that VK_N we were talking about before.

Interesting... a nice list of candidates, as well as a bit of input that suggests how additional letters can narrow the field. Plusd, you notice how that first item has no letters after the character? That's what I will get if I hit ENTER (or 1, or choose the first item) right then:

What do you know ந் (a.k.a. U+0ba8 U+0bcd) -- TAMIL LETTER NA plus TAMIL SIGN VIRAMA, or more conventionally, NA + puLLi. Which is basically a letter N, since the inherent vowel is being dropped.

Ok, let's try a bit more. Let's try typing N followed by I. What happens then?

Well, that thins the field out a bit, huh? I can just hit ENTER (or 1, or choose the first item) and be like the Tamil version of the knights who say நி (NI):

. Or I can type NII (or 2, or choose the second item earlier, and since there is only one item it will just commit it automatically:

Now the fact that the input method gives that candidate list and those hints as to what typing will do to change the list can be very helpful in learning the layout. The data behind the entries with TAMIL LETTER NA is simple enough:

"n"   = "ந்"
"na"  = "ந"
"naa" = "நா"
"ni"  = "நி"
"nii" = "நீ"
"nu"  = "நு"
"nuu" = "நூ"
"ne"  = "நெ"
"nee" = "நே"
"nai" = "நை"
"no"  = "நொ"
"noo" = "நோ"
"nau" = "நௌ"

and the input method just kind of extends that to all of the consonants in the language (and adds a few of those Grantha that are in Unicode now).

Of course this is working entirely off of using the Unicode names for all the letters in the Tamil block as pure transliterations and building an input method from them as is (with some minor additions based on what people have told me in the past), which will not be 100% of what a native speaker might expect. Here is what I am working off of right now

a    அ
aa   ஆ
i    இ
ii    ஈ
u    உ
uu   ஊ
e    எ
ee   ஏ
ai    ஐ
o    ஒ
oo   ஓ
au   ஔ
k    க்
ng   ங்
c    ச்
j    ஜ்
ny   ஞ்
tt    ட்
nn   ண்
t    த்
n    ந்
nnn  ன்
p    ப்
f    ஃப்
m   ம்
y   ய்
r    ர்
rr   ற்
l    ல்
ll    ள்
lll    ழ்
v    வ்
ss   ஷ்
s    ஸ்
sh   ஶ்
h    ஹ்

Feel free to suggest anything that might be wrong here (is you do not see the second last entry SHA + puLLi then you might not be running on Vista!).

Now this kind of a phonetic input system seems more intuitive, both it what initially gets typed and in the feedback you get while you are typing. It certainly feels (to me) like a much more natural system than typing I I N to get NII.

Though I am not a native speaker so my opinion is not the most important type of opinion here, of course. :-)

Which is not to say a visual input system would be impossible -- one could simply swap around the letters and create one based on the visual aspects, too. I am not sure whether or not that would be useful, so I'll again ask native Tamil speakers what they think....

And I'll try to make this sample and the Sinhala one available soon! :-)

This post brought to you by நீ (U+0ba8 U+0bc0, a.k.a. TAMIL LETTER NA + TAMIL VOWEL SIGN II)