Orthographic chording

Objectives

Goals

• Provide a faster and more ergonomic alternative to fingerspelling
• (mostly) Mimic the intuition for syllable-by-syllable writeouts

Nongoals

• Replace nonorthographic theories

Mechanics

orth_chording.py is the main orthographic dictionary. It should be disabled initially and can be thought of as a "mode" which you enter into or exit from.

See setup instructions in SETUP.md.

Example outlines

• sedenion SEFRD/TPHO*PB
• apeirogon A/PAO*ERGDZ/TKPWOPB
• Sierpinski #S*ER/PEUPB/SKPWEU
• dopaminergic TKO/PAPLGD/TPHER/TKPWEUPG
• dactylopatagium TKAPG/T*EULGDZ/PA/TA/TKPW*UPL
• rhombicosidodecahedron TPWROPL/PWEU/KOS/EU/TKOFRD/KAFRTD/TKROPB
• Pafnuty Lvovich Chebyshev #PAF/TPHUFPBT/S-P/#HR/SRO/SREUFP/S-P/#KHEBTSDZ/SHEFB
  • (extended stenotype: #PAF/TPHUFPBT/#^HR/SRO/SREUFP/#^KHEBTSDZ/SHEFB)

Entry and exit

You may need to manually define an entry to enter the orthographic dictionary using the {plover:solo_dict} command from the plover-dict-commands plugin; see SETUP.md.

Exit is handled by a special entry which translates to {plover:end_solo_dict}. By default, the stroke -TSDZ is mapped to this.

Left bank

Left bank letters

Roughly a superset of fingerspelling. All vowels and left-hand consonants can be individually chorded the same as with fingerspelling, with two exceptions:

• K: c
• KPW: k

The * key does not need to be pressed for each stroke.

WHR- as hr

By default, ...HR- will translate to ...l, so SHR, THR, KHR will produce sl, tl, cl. Use WHR to split l into hr; e.g. throttle could be stroked TWHROT/THRE.

• SWHR: shr
• TWHR: thr
• KWHR: chr

Additional left bank chords

Other various chords have been introduced:

• STPHR: ' (apostrophe)
• SKP: ss
• SKPW: sk
• SWR: sr
• TKPH: kn
• TPWH: ph
  • TPW: phl
• TPWR: rh
• TPHR: fl
• KWH: qu
• PHR: pl
• WHR: hr

Vowels

When vowels are in a stroke, * is used as an additional vowel key.

Right bank

Right bank letters

All single-key chords represent their key values. Other chords include:

• -PG: c
• -FRLG: h
• -PBLGT: j (-PBLG: dg)
• -BG: k (-BLG: ck)
• -PL: m
• -PB: n
• -FPBLG: q
• -FB: v
• -FBL: w
• -BGS: x (-BGZ: ks)
• -TSDZ: y

Right bank Plover clusters

These clusters can be individually chorded the same as in Plover theory:

• -FRP: mp
• -FRPB: rch
• -FRPBLG: nch
• -FRB: rv
• -FP: ch
• -FPL: sm
• -FBG: sk

These clusters have been changed:

• -FPB: sh (-RB: rb)
• -FPBG: nk
• -FLG: lk
• -FLT: st (-FT: ft)

-SZ as doubler

-SZ is sometimes used to double an ending consonant.

• -FSZ: ff
• -FRSZ: hh
• -PBSZ: nn
• -LSZ: ll
• -SZ: ss

Additional right bank chords

Other various chords have been introduced:

• -FR: rf
• -FRPBG: nc
• -FRPBD: hn
• -FRPBDZ: hns
• -FRBL: mb
• -FPBL: tch
• -FPLG: ph
  • -FRPLG: rph
• -FPG: sc
• -FG: gh
  • -FRG: rgh
• -PBLG: dg
• -PLG: pl
• -BLG: ck
• -BLGT: tion (-GS: gs)
  • -FBLGT: ction (-BGS: x)
• -BGZ: ks
• -DZ: ds

Ending vowels

e and y are given chords which only use columns 4/5.

• -TD: e
• -TSDZ: y

The remaining ending vowels are assigned to chords that contain -G. From there, 4 uncommon chords are available for the remaining 4 vowels, so they have been arbitrarily assigned according to steno order.

• -GSZ: a
• -GD: i
• -GDZ: o
• -GZ: u

Inverted ending vowels

Some chords in columns 1/2 can be used to add vowels after chords that use columns 4/5.

• -FR: e (normally h)
• -FPB: y (normally sh)

These are simply added to the stroke, e.g.,

• -FRT: te
• -FRS: se
• -FRD: de
• -FRZ: ze
• -FRLS: lse
• -FRGT: the
• -FRPBT: nte
• -FRPBS: nse
• -FPBT: ty
• -FPBS: sy
• -FPBGT: thy
• etc.

Ending punctuation

Punctation chords all contain -FPLT. The punctuation characters are included in the glue and do not affect spacing or capitalization.

• -FPLT: . (period)
• -FRPLT: ' (apostrophe)
• -FPBLT: - (hyphen & attach after)
• -FPBLTD: (em dash & attach after)

Stroke modifiers

The remaining symbol keys are used to add modifiers onto the stroke.

For the standard English stenotype system:

• #: (capitalize)

For an extended stenotype system that provides ^:

• #: (capitalize)
• ^: (space before)
• +: [undecided]

Misc details

Minutiae

• Unlike fingerspelling, letters will not be forced to lowercase (e.g., KPA: "{-|}" will affect the casing).

Chord identification

Stroke translations are constructed by checking each key in a stroke, in steno order. Chords are identified progressively as keys are checked.

• Any keys that are checked and which have not yet been translated into a chord are tracked. For each key that is checked, if we can constrct a larger chord out of that key and all the other keys that have not yet been translated, then the key is also tracked.
• Once a key is encountered that cannot continue the chord (or we reach the end of the stroke), the chord is appended to the translation.

This means that chords cannot be "stacked" nor overlap each other. This method also causes some strokes to not be translated how one might expect them to; several chords are included whose purpose are to resolve conflicts if the original result is uncommon or inconsistent (like -FLTD: "fle" vs "std"). (This also means some right-bank consonant clusters cannot be used with certain ending vowel chords for now, which may be changed later.)

Chord-by-chord translations are placed inside a glue; i.e., PA*PBGDZ maps to "{&piano}" instead of just "piano".

Chords and their translations are defined in orth_chording.py under the variable _CHORDS.

Special entries

Special entries function like normal dictionary entries and are not split up chord-by-chord like other strokes. They are defined in orth_chording.py under the variable _SPECIAL_ENTRIES.

By default, these entries are:

"S-P": "{^ ^}",
"KPA": "{}{-|}",
"KPA*": "{^}{-|}",
"SKW-T": "{^}'{^}",
"TP-PL": "{.}",
"KW-BG": "{,}",
"TP-BG": "{!}",
"KW-PL": "{?}",
"H-F": "{?}",
"H-PB": "{^}-{^}",
"-TSDZ": "{#}{plover:end_solo_dict}",

Additional special entries can be added by editing orth_chording.py. Alternatively, you can also specify additional dictionaries to the command you use to enter the orthographic dictionary.