Phonetic keyboard layout Phonetic keyboard layout A phonetic keyboard layout is a setup in which the letters of a language correspond to the keys in the keyboard layout for another language and assumes a one-to-one correspondence between letters in the languages that is based on their sound. Russian has two popular keyboard layouts: The Cyrillic letters are on the same keys as similarly-sounding Roman letters: A-А, Б-B, В-V, Г-G, Д-D, Ф-F, K-K, O-O and so on. There are Russian phonetic layouts based on the QWERTY layout and others based on other localized layouts. The Russian phonetic layout is especially suited for foreigners studying
QWERTY studies administered by Dvorak himself before and after World War II. Economists Stan Liebowitz and Stephen Margolis have noted that rigorous studies are inconclusive as to whether they actually offer any real benefits, and some studies on keyboard layout have suggested that, for a skilled typist, layout is largely irrelevant – even randomized and alphabetical keyboards allow for similar typing speeds to QWERTY and Dvorak keyboards, and that switching costs always outweigh the benefits of further training on whichever keyboard you already use. The most widely used such alternative is the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard; another alternative is Colemak, which is