Defective Russian Phonetic keyboard in iOS

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Level 1

33 points

Defective Russian Phonetic keyboard in iOS

I've noticed that the Russian Phonetic keyboard is defective in iOS.

Both Russian and Bulgarian use the Cyrillic alphabet but each language has a completely different standard keyboard layout. For example, on the second row of a standard keyboard, the Russian one starts with ФЫВА and the Bulgarian one starts with ЬЯАО. To make typing easier in Cyrillic for users of QWERTY keyboards, both languages also have phonetic keyboards where the layout of the Cyrillic letters closely resembles the same phonetic sounds on a QWERTY keyboard. Therefore the second row of these phonetic keyboards starts with АСДФ, corresponding to ASDF on the second row of a QWERTY keyboard.

Here's the problem - if I add the Bulgarian Phonetic keyboard to my iPhone, I get a phonetic keyboard where the second row starts with АСДФ, but if I add the Russian Phonetic keyboard, I see the standard ФЫВА Russian layout and not a phonetic one starting АСДФ. Unfortunately I cannot use a Bulgarian phonetic keyboard for typing in Russian because it is missing letters that don't exist in Bulgarian, for example Ы.

What is causing this? Is it a bug in iOS?

iPhone 5, iOS 6.1.4

Posted on May 14, 2013 10:48 AM

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Answer 1

May 14, 2013 11:16 AM in response to NFH.

The only phonetic Russian keyboard available on the iPhone is a hardware keyboard. It affects any external keyboards you have connected to the device. There is only one Russian software keyboard. Are you saying there's a problem when you're using an external keyboard?

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Answer 2

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,952 points

May 14, 2013 11:42 AM in response to NFH.

NFH. wrote:

if I add the Bulgarian Phonetic keyboard to my iPhone, I get a phonetic keyboard where the second row starts with АСДФ, but if I add the Russian Phonetic keyboard, I see the standard ФЫВА Russian layout

In iOS, the default "Bulgarian" screen keyboard happens to be phonetic, while the Russian one is not. That is what you are seeing. If you tap on Bulgarian on the list and then choose Bulgarian Standard for the screen keyboard, that one will also be non-phonetic.

As Meg said, the keyboards which are labeled Phonetic are only for use with an external wifi hardware keyboard.

You can ask Apple to add a Russian phonetic screen keyboard via

http://www.apple.com/feedback

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Answer 3

archagon

Level 1

0 points

Oct 30, 2014 12:21 PM in response to NFH.

If it helps, I recently released a custom keyboard (Translit Keyboard) that lets you type phonetically in a number of languages, including Russian. Bonus: letters that don't map to a single character, such as sh/ш, work just as well.

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Answer 4

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

115,952 points

Oct 30, 2014 2:38 PM in response to archagon

archagon wrote:

If it helps, I recently released a custom keyboard (Translit Keyboard) that lets you type phonetically in a number of languages, including Russian. Bonus: letters that don't map to a single character, such as sh/ш, work just as well.

Great work, thanks!

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Answer 5

archagon

Level 1

0 points

Nov 13, 2014 4:11 AM in response to NFH.

Just added another keyboard, this one with the actual phonetic Russian layout, for people who prefer it over translit: https://appsto.re/us/ZoT33.i

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Answer 6

NFH. Author

Level 1

33 points

Nov 13, 2014 4:36 AM in response to archagon

archagon wrote:

Just added another keyboard, this one with the actual phonetic Russian layout, for people who prefer it over translit: https://appsto.re/us/ZoT33.i

I like the look of this one, but I don't think the layout is ideal. I prefer the Cyrillic Х to correspond to the Latin H and for the Cyrillic Ж to correspond to the English/French J, perhaps:

ЧШЕРТЫУИОПЮ

АСДФГХЖКЛЯЭ

ЗЧЦВБНМЬЩ

ЪЁ

You ought to offer it for free in the App Store for a short period in order to attract some reviews and then start charging later.

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Answer 7

archagon

Level 1

0 points

Nov 13, 2014 6:10 AM in response to NFH.

I like the look of this one, but I don't think the layout is ideal. I prefer the Cyrillic Х to correspond to the Latin H and for the Cyrillic Ж to correspond to the English/French J

That's a good idea, and I could add that as an option. However, I do believe that the layout I chose is fairly standard. (At least, it's the one that OSX uses.)

You ought to offer it for free in the App Store for a short period in order to attract some reviews and then start charging later.

For a niche app like this, it's never going to work. I'd rather just charge a dollar and not worry about it.

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