Can I add own special character to keyboard?

niké131 wrote:

In my native language we use " ʼn ".

What language is that, Afrikaans? If so, I think standard practice to just use apostrophe plus n, like 'n, and not a special character.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrikaans#Initial_apostrophes

If you really want to use the special U+149 character, the easiest way would be to make a text replacement in system preferences > keyboard > text > replace with.

Otherwise make a custom keyboard with

https://software.sil.org/ukelele/

Modifying the press/hold popup menu may be possible but fairly complicated.

Two ways I can think of:

• Create and use a customized keyboard profile.
• Write an Automator or Applescript which is invoked using an unused key combination to then enter the character.

I know that isn't a final solution presented on a platter but you can probably do a web search for doing either of those things.

I am wondering if you're right about Afrikaans. I just heard on the news this morning S. Africa's Port Elizabeth was renamed Gqeberha but people who don't speak the local language are having problems. :-) (Kind of like when a lake near where I live was recently renamed Bde Mka Ska.) CNN doesn't use an accented character when reporting city's new name but the story I heard on the radio says it has some guttural sounds which may may require some special characters.

niké131 wrote:

I need the ʼn for formal articles

Interesting! Could you provide an online reference for that? It is useful info that should at least be added to the Wikipedia articles that deal with the topic.

I wonder if it is like the substitutions for special characters in German. "ue" for "ü", "ae" for "ä", "ss" for "ß" The substitutions were accepted in Switzerland but In Germany you really were supposed to use the proper character unless (and this was 40 years ago back in the days of typewriters and early PCs) you were using a machine that didn't have them.

niké131 wrote:

die afkappingsteken staan ook bekend as die apostroof. Let op die korrekte vorm van die afkappingsteken, naamlik ’ of ' , en nie ‘ nie"

Thanks!

But that does not say anything about using the special character ʼn (U+0149). It just tells you which apostrophe character is allowed before you type the n. Namely it says that you can use Right Single Quote (U+2019) or Apostrophe (U+0027) but never use Left Single Quotation Mark (U+2018) or Quotation Mark (U+0022)

Is there perhaps a different part of Afrikaanse Woordelys & Spelreëls which talks about not typing "apostrophe then n" but instead using the special character "n preceded by apostrophe" (U+0149) ?

Interesting! Gqeberha [ᶢǃʱɛ̀ɓéːxà]  Probably hard for any non-Xhosa to pronounce the gq correctly, even with the IPA rendering, it represents one of the "click" consonants in that language.