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Miq keys layout.png

Miq keys shifted.png

It would be good to caption or describe these somehow. Also, my intention in the instructions (which I see now wasn't very clear) was for the layout to be documented in the same way as the Spanish layout—not as a screenshot, but using wiki markup. —Jonathan


The characters in the Miskito language closely resemble the Spanish alphabet, with a few exceptions. There are a few accented characters we needed to capture in our keyboard layout. Specifically, we need to capture characters with (ˆ), (´), (˜), and (`) accents on the vowels (a, e, i, o, u/A, E, I, O, U). In our designed layout, we began using the standard keyboard layout used in English. As vowels and consonants are the same between English and Miskito, we figured the frequency distribution of letters might be similar. Additionally, users are accustomed to the English keyboard layout, so minimizing the number of changes we make to accommodate the Miskito language will make it easier for them to make the transition.

We make the following changes so our keyboard is compatible with the Miskito language:

  • ◌~ + n = ñ
  • ◌` + A, E, I, O, U, a, e, i, o, u = À, È, Ì, Ò, Ù, à, è, ì, ò, ù
  • ◌^ + A, I, U, a, i, u = Â, Î, Û, â, î, û
  • ◌' + A, E, I, O, U, a, e, i, o, u = Á, É, Í, Ó, Ú, á, é, í, ó, ú
  • altGR also has added functionality on the z, x, c, v keys for the <,>,\,| respectively
  • We also added additional punctuation such as the inverted question (¿) mark in number row


To install the keyboard, follow the steps provided here:

1. Install miq keyboard.klc from this Github repository [1] by running the setup.exe file from the "miq" folder.

2. Find the directory where the file is saved with command prompt and enter: sudo cp miq keyboard.klc.keylayout /Library/Keyboard\ Layouts/

3. If the new layout doesn't immediately appear as a new layout option, restart your computer.

4. If it still doesn't appear, access keyboard input settings, and select "Custom Miskitu...". It might be under English language options.


The license for this keyboard can be found here [2]