How to use Yiddish Pasekh?

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Starting Up

1. Start Keyman.  If you do not want to start Keyman every time then you can configure it to start with Windows.
2. Click the keyboard layout indicator on the Windows taskbar and switch to "Hebrew - Yiddish Pasekh." The keyboard layout indicator will display HE instead of EN, and the Keyman icon will turn into a blue Pasekh Tsvey Yudn icon.

Keystrokes

Type Yiddish by transliteration:  type Shin with sh or Pasekh Tsvey Yudn with ay.

You can use idle keys to speed up typing but you do not have to:

     c = ts  (cf. Eastern European orthographies)
     j = ey  (the name of j rhymes with ey)
     w = sh  (looks like)
     x = kh  (phonetic symbol)

Khof, mem, nun, fey and tsadek are shaped automatically:  they take their final forms at the end of words and their regular forms otherwise.  Isolated final forms can be typed with shifted keys:

     Shift+C -> final tsadek
     Shift+X -> final khof

Shtumer Alef is automatically inserted before ay, ey, i, oy, or u at the beginning of words.  You can type a word-internal shtumer alef with Shift+A.

Occasionally, you may need initial ay, ey, etc. without a shtumer alef, e.g. when you want to list the letters of the alefbeys.  You can type them with the following key combinations:

     Shift+E -> ey
     Shift+I -> i
     Shift+J -> ey  (the name of J rhymes with ey)
     Shift+O -> oy
     Shift+U -> u
     Shift+Y -> ay  (the name of Y rhymes with ay)

Hebrew-specific letters are typed with shifted keys, too:

     Shift+B -> veys
     Shift+H -> khes
     Shift+K -> kof (Hebrew kaf)
     Shift+S -> sof
     Shift+T -> tof
     Shift+W -> sin

Geresh is typed with Shift+G and curley double quotes are typed with the Q key.  The opening quotation mark is low if Q is unshifted and high if shifted.

The backslash key functions as a temporary place holder to separate letters or parts of compound words.  Type s\h to output samekh hey instead of shin, or type ge\aylt to insert a shtumer alef between the ayen and the pasekh tsvey yudn.

The hyphen key outputs a makef after a Yiddish letter and a hyphen otherwise.  If, for some reason, you need a hyphen after a Yiddish letter, press the hyphen key twice.

A hyphen after a hyphen turns the hyphen into an en dash.
A hyphen after an en dash turns the en dash into an em dash.
A geresh after a geresh turns the geresh into gershayim.