German keyboard layout: Difference between revisions
m →History: even better |
Y. Dongchen (talk | contribs) lead: note that it is not one layout, but several DIN variants (older "T" series, and then the "E" series, etc.) |
||
(19 intermediate revisions by 16 users not shown) | |||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{Short description|QWERTZ keyboard layout}} |
|||
{{ |
{{More citations needed|date=September 2017}} |
||
The '''German keyboard layout''' is |
The '''German keyboard layout''' is family of [[QWERTZ]] [[keyboard layouts]] commonly used in Austria and Germany. It is based on one defined in a former edition (October 1988) of the German standard [[DIN]] 2137–2. The current edition DIN 2137-1:2012-06 standardizes it as the first (basic) one of three layouts, calling it "T1" (''{{lang|de|Tastaturbelegung 1}}'', "keyboard layout 1"). |
||
The German layout differs from the English (US and UK) layouts in four major ways: |
The German layout differs from the English (US and UK) layouts in four major ways: |
||
* The positions of the "Z" and "Y" keys are switched. In English, the letter "y" is very common and the letter "z" is relatively rare, whereas in German the letter "z" is very common and the letter "y" is very uncommon.<ref> |
* The positions of the "Z" and "Y" keys are switched. In English, the letter "y" is very common and the letter "z" is relatively rare, whereas in German the letter "z" is very common and the letter "y" is very uncommon.<ref>[https://de.pons.com/%C3%BCbersetzung/deutsch-als-fremdsprache/-/Y Y bis y-Achse : Deutsch als Fremdsprache | PONS]</ref> The German layout places "z" in a position where it can be struck by the index finger, rather than by the weaker little finger. |
||
* Part of the keyboard is adapted to include [[Umlaut (diacritic)|umlauted vowels]] (''ä'', ''ö'', ''ü'') and the [[ß|sharp s]] (''ß''). (Some newer types of German keyboards offer the fixed assignment {{keypress|Alt|+|H}} → <big>[[Capital ẞ|ẞ]]</big> for its capitalized version.) |
* Part of the keyboard is adapted to include [[Umlaut (diacritic)|umlauted vowels]] (''ä'', ''ö'', ''ü'') and the [[ß|sharp s]] (''ß''). (Some newer types of German keyboards offer the fixed assignment {{keypress|Alt|+|H}} → <big>[[Capital ẞ|ẞ]]</big> for its capitalized version.) |
||
* Some of special key inscriptions are changed to a graphical symbol (e.g. {{Key press|Caps Lock}} is an upward arrow, {{Key press|backspace}} a leftward arrow). Most of the other abbreviations are replaced by German abbreviations (thus e.g. "Ctrl" is [[Calque|translated]] to its German equivalent "Strg", for ''{{lang|de|{{linktext|Steuerung}}}}''). "[[Esc key|Esc]]" remains as such. (See |
* Some of special key inscriptions are changed to a graphical symbol (e.g. {{Key press|Caps Lock}} is an upward arrow, {{Key press|backspace}} a leftward arrow). Most of the other abbreviations are replaced by German abbreviations (thus e.g. "Ctrl" is [[Calque|translated]] to its German equivalent "Strg", for ''{{lang|de|{{linktext|Steuerung}}}}''). "[[Esc key|Esc]]" remains as such. (See {{Section link||Key labels}}.) |
||
* Like many other non-American keyboards, German keyboards change the right [[Alt key|Alt]] key into an [[Alt Gr]] key to access a third level of key assignments. This is necessary because the umlauts and some other special characters leave no room to have all the special symbols of [[ASCII]], needed by programmers among others, available on the first or second (shifted) levels without unduly increasing the size of the keyboard. |
* Like many other non-American keyboards, German keyboards change the right [[Alt key|Alt]] key into an [[Alt Gr]] key to access a third level of key assignments. This is necessary because the umlauts and some other special characters leave no room to have all the special symbols of [[ASCII]], needed by programmers among others, available on the first or second (shifted) levels without unduly increasing the size of the keyboard. |
||
Line 72: | Line 73: | ||
rect 1734 306 1833 455 [[I]] |
rect 1734 306 1833 455 [[I]] |
||
rect 1734 456 1833 605 [[Tilde]] |
rect 1734 456 1833 605 [[Tilde]] |
||
rect 1834 356 1933 555 [[ |
rect 1834 356 1933 555 [[Dotless I]] |
||
rect 1938 306 2037 455 [[O]] |
rect 1938 306 2037 455 [[O]] |
||
rect 1938 456 2037 605 [[Ring (diacritic)]] |
rect 1938 456 2037 605 [[Ring (diacritic)]] |
||
Line 161: | Line 162: | ||
rect 1880 1320 1979 1419 [[Thin space]] |
rect 1880 1320 1979 1419 [[Thin space]] |
||
rect 1984 1220 2183 1519 [[AltGr key]] |
rect 1984 1220 2183 1519 [[AltGr key]] |
||
rect 2188 1220 2387 1519 [[ISO/IEC 9995#Level and |
rect 2188 1220 2387 1519 [[ISO/IEC 9995#Level and group selection]] |
||
rect 2392 1220 2591 1519 [[Windows key]] |
rect 2392 1220 2591 1519 [[Windows key]] |
||
rect 2596 1220 2795 1519 [[Menu key]] |
rect 2596 1220 2795 1519 [[Menu key]] |
||
Line 170: | Line 171: | ||
The characters ², ³, {, [, ], }, \, @, |, µ, ~, and € are accessed by holding the {{Key press|[[AltGr]]}} key and tapping the other key. The {{Key press|[[Alt key|Alt]]}} key on the left will not access these additional characters. Alternatively {{Key press|[[Ctrl key|Strg]]|Alt}} and pressing the respective key also produce the alternative characters in many environments, in order to support keyboards that only have one left {{Key press|[[Alt key|Alt]]}} key.<ref>{{cite web| title=Robust key message handling in Windows| author=Marc Durdin| date=June 24, 2008| url=https://blog.keyman.com/2008/06/robust-key-mess/| access-date=2020-05-17}}</ref> |
The characters ², ³, {, [, ], }, \, @, |, µ, ~, and € are accessed by holding the {{Key press|[[AltGr]]}} key and tapping the other key. The {{Key press|[[Alt key|Alt]]}} key on the left will not access these additional characters. Alternatively {{Key press|[[Ctrl key|Strg]]|Alt}} and pressing the respective key also produce the alternative characters in many environments, in order to support keyboards that only have one left {{Key press|[[Alt key|Alt]]}} key.<ref>{{cite web| title=Robust key message handling in Windows| author=Marc Durdin| date=June 24, 2008| url=https://blog.keyman.com/2008/06/robust-key-mess/| access-date=2020-05-17}}</ref> |
||
The accent keys {{Key press|^}}, {{Key press|´}}, {{Key press|`}} are dead keys: press and release an accent key, then press a letter key to produce accented characters (ô, á, ù, etc.; the current DIN 2137-1:2012-06 extends this for e.g. ń, ś etc.). If the entered combination is not encoded in [[Unicode]] by a single code point ([[precomposed character]]), most current implementations cause the display of a free-standing (spacing) version of the accent followed by the unaccented base letter. For users with insufficient typing skills this behaviour (which is explicitly not compliant with the current DIN 2137-1:2012-06) leads to mistype a spacing accent instead of an apostrophe (e.g., ''it´s'' <!--please don't let your bots change it--> instead of correctly ''it's'').<ref>Markus Kuhn: [http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs/apostrophe.html Apostrophe and acute accent confusion], 2001.</ref> |
The accent keys {{Key press|^}}, {{Key press|´}}, {{Key press|`}} are [[Dead key|dead keys]]: press and release an accent key, then press a letter key to produce accented characters (ô, á, ù, etc.; the current DIN 2137-1:2012-06 extends this for e.g. ń, ś etc.). If the entered combination is not encoded in [[Unicode]] by a single code point ([[precomposed character]]), most current implementations cause the display of a free-standing (spacing) version of the accent followed by the unaccented base letter. For users with insufficient typing skills this behaviour (which is explicitly not compliant with the current DIN 2137-1:2012-06) leads to mistype a spacing accent instead of an apostrophe (e.g., ''it´s'' <!--please don't let your bots change it--> instead of correctly ''it's'').<ref>Markus Kuhn: [http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs/apostrophe.html Apostrophe and acute accent confusion], 2001.</ref> |
||
Note that the [[semicolon]] and [[Colon (punctuation)|colon]] are accessed by using the {{Key press|Shift}} key. |
Note that the [[semicolon]] and [[Colon (punctuation)|colon]] are accessed by using the {{Key press|Shift}} key. |
||
Line 219: | Line 220: | ||
=== Caps lock === |
=== Caps lock === |
||
The behaviour of {{Key press|Caps Lock}} according to former editions of the DIN 2137 standard is inherited from mechanical [[typewriters]]: Pressing it once shifts all keys including numbers and special characters until the {{Key press|Caps Lock}} key is pressed again. Holding {{Key press|Shift}} while {{Key press|Caps Lock}} is active unshifts all keys |
The behaviour of {{Key press|Caps Lock}} according to former editions of the DIN 2137 standard is inherited from mechanical [[typewriters]]: Pressing it once shifts all keys including numbers and special characters until the {{Key press|Caps Lock}} key is pressed again. Holding {{Key press|Shift}} while {{Key press|Caps Lock}} is active unshifts all keys. The current DIN 2137-1:2012-06 simply requests the presence of a "capitals lock" key (which is the name used in the ISO/IEC 9995 series), without any description of its function. |
||
In IT, an alternative behaviour is often preferred, usually described as "IBM", which is the same as {{Key press|Caps Lock}} on English keyboards – only letters are shifted, and hitting {{Key press|Caps Lock}} again releases it. |
In IT, an alternative behaviour is often preferred, usually described as "IBM", which is the same as {{Key press|Caps Lock}} on English keyboards – only letters are shifted, and hitting {{Key press|Caps Lock}} again releases it. |
||
Both {{Key press|Shift}} and {{Key press|Caps Lock}} lack any textual labels, despite bearing names that are used in texts like manuals. The {{Key press|Caps Lock}} key is called ''Feststellttaste'' (locking key) and simply labeled with a large down-arrow (on newer designs pointing to an uppercase A letter). {{Key press|Shift}} is called ''Umschalttaste'' (switching key) and labeled with a large up-arrow. |
|||
{{Clear}} |
{{Clear}} |
||
Line 230: | Line 233: | ||
[[File:KB Germany Linux.svg|thumb|upright=2.5|German keyboard layout in modern Linux systems]] |
[[File:KB Germany Linux.svg|thumb|upright=2.5|German keyboard layout in modern Linux systems]] |
||
Most [[Linux |
Most [[Linux distribution]]s include a keymap for German in Germany that extends the T1 layout with a set of characters and [[dead key]]s similar, but not identical to the "Outdated common secondary group" of [[ISO/IEC 9995#Outdated common secondary group|ISO/IEC 9995-3:2002]]. |
||
{{Clear}} |
{{Clear}} |
||
== History == |
|||
{{Expand section|date=September 2017}}<!-- this section should be primarily prose, with images for demonstration --> |
{{Expand section|date=September 2017}}<!-- this section should be primarily prose, with images for demonstration --> |
||
[[File:Typewriter Adler No. 7 (1) keyboard.jpg|thumb|center|upright=3|Keyboard of an ''Adler'' typewriter ''Modell No. 7'', produced about 1899–1920 in [[Frankfurt]]]] |
[[File:Typewriter Adler No. 7 (1) keyboard.jpg|thumb|center|upright=3|Keyboard of an ''Adler'' typewriter ''Modell No. 7'', produced about 1899–1920 in [[Frankfurt]]]] |
||
[[File:Olympia typewriter - German keyboard layout-9608.jpg|thumb|center|upright=3|Keyboard of a mechanical typewriter ''Olympia SM3'', produced 1954 by |
[[File:Olympia typewriter - German keyboard layout-9608.jpg|thumb|center|upright=3|Keyboard of a mechanical typewriter ''Olympia SM3'', produced 1954 by [[Olympia-Werke]], Germany.]] |
||
[[File:Keyboard on a German mechanical Olympia typewriter.jpg|thumb|center|upright=3|Keyboard of a mechanical typewriter ''Olympia SM9'', produced 1964 by |
[[File:Keyboard on a German mechanical Olympia typewriter.jpg|thumb|center|upright=3|Keyboard of a mechanical typewriter ''Olympia SM9'', produced 1964 by [[Olympia-Werke]], Germany. This layout was defined by DIN 2112 (1956, with revisions 1967 and 1976). The location of the punctuation marks on the upper numerical row is different from modern computer keyboards. The key with {{Button|∷ four dots}} is the margin release.<ref>"That's the margin release. When you near the margin on the right side of the page, a little bell will ring to let you know that you're about five to seven characters away from the margin stop. If you end up hitting the margin anyway, and you still have a letter or two to type, you can press the key with the four dots to override the hard margin for the current line, and squeeze in those extra letters." {{cite web|url=http://munchkinwrangler.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/monday-search-term-safari-lxxviii/|title=monday search term safari LXXVIII. |access-date=2013-05-29|date=2009-12-07}}</ref> The arrow key under {{Button|TAB}} is the {{Button|↣ Backspace}} key,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://machinesoflovinggrace.com/ptf/OnlineManual.html |title=Online Typewriter Manual 1 |access-date=2013-05-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130723025301/http://machinesoflovinggrace.com/ptf/OnlineManual.html |archive-date=2013-07-23 |url-status=dead }}</ref> which is pointing in the direction the paper would move rather than the way a cursor would move (as on a modern computer keyboard).]] |
||
[[File:Key-area-of-an-IBM-portable-PC-06-keyboard.jpg|thumb|center|upright=3|Detail of a keyboard of a German [[IBM Portable Personal Computer|IBM Portable PC 5155]], produced about 1984–85]] |
[[File:Key-area-of-an-IBM-portable-PC-06-keyboard.jpg|thumb|center|upright=3|Detail of a keyboard of a German [[IBM Portable Personal Computer|IBM Portable PC 5155]], produced about 1984–85]] |
||
Latest revision as of 05:51, 6 July 2024
This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2017) |
The German keyboard layout is family of QWERTZ keyboard layouts commonly used in Austria and Germany. It is based on one defined in a former edition (October 1988) of the German standard DIN 2137–2. The current edition DIN 2137-1:2012-06 standardizes it as the first (basic) one of three layouts, calling it "T1" (Tastaturbelegung 1, "keyboard layout 1").
The German layout differs from the English (US and UK) layouts in four major ways:
- The positions of the "Z" and "Y" keys are switched. In English, the letter "y" is very common and the letter "z" is relatively rare, whereas in German the letter "z" is very common and the letter "y" is very uncommon.[1] The German layout places "z" in a position where it can be struck by the index finger, rather than by the weaker little finger.
- Part of the keyboard is adapted to include umlauted vowels (ä, ö, ü) and the sharp s (ß). (Some newer types of German keyboards offer the fixed assignment Alt+++H → ẞ for its capitalized version.)
- Some of special key inscriptions are changed to a graphical symbol (e.g. ⇪ Caps Lock is an upward arrow, ← Backspace a leftward arrow). Most of the other abbreviations are replaced by German abbreviations (thus e.g. "Ctrl" is translated to its German equivalent "Strg", for Steuerung). "Esc" remains as such. (See § Key labels.)
- Like many other non-American keyboards, German keyboards change the right Alt key into an Alt Gr key to access a third level of key assignments. This is necessary because the umlauts and some other special characters leave no room to have all the special symbols of ASCII, needed by programmers among others, available on the first or second (shifted) levels without unduly increasing the size of the keyboard.
General information
[edit]The characters ², ³, {, [, ], }, \, @, |, µ, ~, and € are accessed by holding the AltGr key and tapping the other key. The Alt key on the left will not access these additional characters. Alternatively Strg+Alt and pressing the respective key also produce the alternative characters in many environments, in order to support keyboards that only have one left Alt key.[2]
The accent keys ^, ´, ` are dead keys: press and release an accent key, then press a letter key to produce accented characters (ô, á, ù, etc.; the current DIN 2137-1:2012-06 extends this for e.g. ń, ś etc.). If the entered combination is not encoded in Unicode by a single code point (precomposed character), most current implementations cause the display of a free-standing (spacing) version of the accent followed by the unaccented base letter. For users with insufficient typing skills this behaviour (which is explicitly not compliant with the current DIN 2137-1:2012-06) leads to mistype a spacing accent instead of an apostrophe (e.g., it´s instead of correctly it's).[3]
Note that the semicolon and colon are accessed by using the ⇧ Shift key.
The "T1" layout lacks some important characters like the German-style quotation marks („“ and ‚‘). As a consequence, these are seldom used in internet communication and usually replaced by " and '.
The "T2" layout newly defined in DIN 2137-1:2012-06 was designed to overcome such restrictions, but firstly to enable typing of other languages written in the Latin script. Therefore, it contains several additional diacritical marks and punctuation characters, including the full set of German, English, and French-style quotation marks in addition to the typographic apostrophe, the prime, the double prime, and the ʻokina.
The image shows characters to be entered using AltGr in the lower left corner of each key depiction (characters not contained in the "T1" layout are marked red). Diacritical marks are marked by a flat rectangle which also indicates the position of the diacritical mark relative to the base letter.
The characters shown at the right border of a keytop are accessed by first pressing a dead key sequence of AltGr plus the × multiplication sign. This X-like symbol may be thought of as an "extra" dead key or "extra" accent type, used to access "miscellaneous" letters that do not have a specific accent type like diaeresis or circumflex. Symbols on the right border shown in green have both upper-case and lower-case forms; the corresponding capital letter is available by pressing the Shift key simultaneously with the symbol key. For instance, to type the lower-case æ ligature, hold the AltGr key and type ×, then release both keys and type the (unshifted) A key. To type the upper-case Æ ligature, hold the AltGr key and type ×, then release both keys, hold Shift and type the (shifted) A key. An active Caps Lock can be used instead of the Shift key to obtain the Æ ligature and similar letters.
In addition, DIN 2137-1:2012-06 defines a layout "T3", which is a superset of "T2" incorporating the whole "secondary group" as defined in ISO/IEC 9995-3:2010. Thus, it enables to write several minority languages (e.g. Sami) and transliterations, but is more difficult to comprehend than the "T2" layout, and therefore not expected to be accepted by a broad audience beyond experts who need this functionality.
Key labels
[edit]Contrary to many other languages, German keyboards are usually not labeled in English (in fact, DIN 2137-1:2012-06 requires either the symbol according to ISO/IEC 9995-7 or the German abbreviation is to be used, with "Esc" as an exception). The abbreviations used on German keyboards are:
German label | English equivalent |
---|---|
Steuerung (Strg) | Ctrl (Control) |
Alternative Grafik (Alt Gr) | Alt Gr |
Einfügen (Einfg) | Insert (Ins) |
Entfernen (Entf) | Delete (Del) |
Bild auf/Bild nach oben (Bild↑) | Page Up (PgUp) |
Bild ab/Bild nach unten (Bild↓) | Page Down (PgDn) |
Position eins (Pos1) | Home ("Position one") |
Ende (Ende) | End (end) |
Drucken / Systemabfrage (Druck/S-Abf) | Print Screen |
Rollen | Scroll Lock ("to roll") |
Pause/Unterbrechen (Pause/Untbr) | Pause |
On some keyboards – including the original IBM PC/AT (and later) German keyboards – the asterisk (*) key on the numeric keypad is instead labeled with the multiplication sign (×), and the divide-key is labeled with the division sign (÷) instead of slash (/). However, those keys still generate the asterisk and slash characters, not the multiplication and division signs.
Caps lock
[edit]The behaviour of ⇪ Caps Lock according to former editions of the DIN 2137 standard is inherited from mechanical typewriters: Pressing it once shifts all keys including numbers and special characters until the ⇪ Caps Lock key is pressed again. Holding ⇧ Shift while ⇪ Caps Lock is active unshifts all keys. The current DIN 2137-1:2012-06 simply requests the presence of a "capitals lock" key (which is the name used in the ISO/IEC 9995 series), without any description of its function.
In IT, an alternative behaviour is often preferred, usually described as "IBM", which is the same as ⇪ Caps Lock on English keyboards – only letters are shifted, and hitting ⇪ Caps Lock again releases it.
Both ⇧ Shift and ⇪ Caps Lock lack any textual labels, despite bearing names that are used in texts like manuals. The ⇪ Caps Lock key is called Feststellttaste (locking key) and simply labeled with a large down-arrow (on newer designs pointing to an uppercase A letter). ⇧ Shift is called Umschalttaste (switching key) and labeled with a large up-arrow.
Linux
[edit]Most Linux distributions include a keymap for German in Germany that extends the T1 layout with a set of characters and dead keys similar, but not identical to the "Outdated common secondary group" of ISO/IEC 9995-3:2002.
History
[edit]This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (September 2017) |
See also
[edit]Notes and references
[edit]- ^ Y bis y-Achse : Deutsch als Fremdsprache | PONS
- ^ Marc Durdin (June 24, 2008). "Robust key message handling in Windows". Retrieved 2020-05-17.
- ^ Markus Kuhn: Apostrophe and acute accent confusion, 2001.
- ^ "That's the margin release. When you near the margin on the right side of the page, a little bell will ring to let you know that you're about five to seven characters away from the margin stop. If you end up hitting the margin anyway, and you still have a letter or two to type, you can press the key with the four dots to override the hard margin for the current line, and squeeze in those extra letters." "monday search term safari LXXVIII". 2009-12-07. Retrieved 2013-05-29.
- ^ "Online Typewriter Manual 1". Archived from the original on 2013-07-23. Retrieved 2013-05-29.