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I am typing Ancient Greek and need to type 3 diacritical marks on a letter. Using the polytonic keyboard, I can only type 2. Help will be much appreciated

I am typing Ancient Greek and need to type 3 diacritical marks on a letter. Using the polytonic keyboard, I can only type 2. Help will be much appreciated.

Posted on Jun 6, 2023 9:46 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 7, 2023 5:16 AM

esther246 wrote:


One solution I found was to set my keyboard to Unicode Hex and type a macron (U+0304) after the accented ι. This is what I got:
ἵ̄
It is not pretty, but it gives me the macron plus the breathing and the accent. In my textbook, the macron is actually under the other two diacritics.

You can get the same thing with the ABC Extended keyboard. You type Option Shift a after the base letter, in case that's easier.


Sophokeys also puts the macron on top. It may be that Greekkeys would put it in the right place, but you have to buy that one. It has a user guide here.

8 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 7, 2023 5:16 AM in response to esther246

esther246 wrote:


One solution I found was to set my keyboard to Unicode Hex and type a macron (U+0304) after the accented ι. This is what I got:
ἵ̄
It is not pretty, but it gives me the macron plus the breathing and the accent. In my textbook, the macron is actually under the other two diacritics.

You can get the same thing with the ABC Extended keyboard. You type Option Shift a after the base letter, in case that's easier.


Sophokeys also puts the macron on top. It may be that Greekkeys would put it in the right place, but you have to buy that one. It has a user guide here.

Jun 6, 2023 1:40 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

I think my message was not very clear. Here is an example.

The word ἵστασο without a macron is an imperative (present middle/passive 2nd pers. sing.) of ἵστημι (I make X stand; I stop X; I am setting X up).

The same word but with a macron added to the rough breathing and the accent is an imperfect indicative (2nd. pers. sing).

I know this is rare, but the macron matters.

Jun 6, 2023 2:37 PM in response to esther246

Thanks for the clarification!


The macron is a problem, you need a special keyboard and font. Maybe Tyndale? Or I could easily add combining macron to Apple's keyboard, but it might not look pretty, depending on the font. Some info:


https://www.textkit.com/greek-latin-forum/viewtopic.php?t=69085


https://www.textkit.com/greek-latin-forum/viewtopic.php?t=70984


https://downloads.stepbible.com/file/Stepbible/Tyndale_Keyboards_Usage_Guide.pdf


Jun 6, 2023 6:12 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Thank you very much for all this information. So far, I have used the Mac's Greek Polytonic keyboard. It is the simplest way and works very very well for pretty much everything. I like Baskerville as a font.

One solution I found was to set my keyboard to Unicode Hex and type a macron (U+0304) after the accented ι. This is what I got:

ἵ̄

It is not pretty, but it gives me the macron plus the breathing and the accent. In my textbook, the macron is actually under the other two diacritics.

I am typing Ancient Greek and need to type 3 diacritical marks on a letter. Using the polytonic keyboard, I can only type 2. Help will be much appreciated

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