Keyboard Map of SPDamascus, a public domain Aramaic/Hebrew font with thin 
letters
Created by: Jimmy Adair, Scholars Press
Last modified: 18 February 1998

Description: SPDamascus exists in both Macintosh and Windows versions, both with the same character and keyboard maps.   By design, all characters in the font lie between decimal 32 and 127 (20x-7Fx, 040-0177), so they should transfer without problem over the Internet.  The font is designed to follow the Michigan-Claremont encoding scheme (see here ) to as great an extent as possible, though the vowel points have multiple forms to allow for proper placement with wide characters, narrow characters, and final kafs (and nuns).

The letters in the SPDamascus font are thinner than those in SP-Tiberian, and the font is designed for use in documents in which it is useful to differentiate between Hebrew and Aramaic script.  In such documents, SPDamascus should be used to render the Aramaic.  In addition to all the characters in the SPTiberian font, SPDamascus includes characters to render the Palestinian vowel points used in Sperber's _The Bible in Aramaic_.

The consonants are listed first in alphabetical order, followed by vowel points and then by other signs.  Please note the distinction between upper and lower case in "key to push"; all shifted keys are so indicated.  Also, note that vowels that are designed for wide characters (most letters) are all unshifted, whereas the corresponding vowels for narrow characters (gimel, waw, zayin, yod, nun) are shifted.  Vowels that go with the final kaf (and nun) are mostly mapped to numbers. 

A few differences may exist among keyboards for some shifted keys (e.g., is " shift-' or shift-2 ?), so people with different keyboards will have to make the proper adjustments.

 

Character 
description
 
Key to
push
) 
alef
 
)
 
(shift- 0)
b 
bet
 
b
g       
gimel
 
g
d 
dalet
 
d
h 
he
 
h
w 
waw
 
w
z 
zayin
 
z
x 
het
 
x
+ 
tet
 
+
 
(shift- =)
y 
yod
 
y
k 
kaf-initial/medial
 
k
K 
kaf-final
 
K
 
(shift- k)
l 
lamed
 
l
m 
mem-initial/medial
 
m
M 
mem-final
 
M
 
(shift- m)
n 
nun-initial/medial
 
n
N 
nun-final
 
N
 
(shift- n)
s 
samek
 
s
( 
ayin
 
(
 
(shift- 9)
p 
pe-initial/medial
 
p
P 
pe-final
 
P
 
(shift- p)
c 
tsade-initial/medial
 
c
C 
tsade-final
 
C
 
(shift- c)
q 
qof
 
q
r 
resh
 
r
# 
sin/shin (without dot)   
#
t 
taw
 
t
 
Tiberian (mostly sub-linear) vowel points

 

ba 
patah (wide char)
 
a
bA 
patah (narrow char)
 
A
 
(shift- a) - also furtive patah
bf       
qamets (wide char)
 
f
bF 
qamets (narrow char)
 
F
 
(shift- f)
K1 
qamets (final kaf)
 1 
(one)
bi 
hireq (wide char)
 
i
bI 
hireq (narrow char)
 
I
 
(shift-i)
be 
segol (wide char)
 
e
bE 
segol (narrow char)
 
E
b' 
sere (wide char)
 
'
 
(single quote)
b" 
sere (narrow char)
 
"
 
(double quote, shift- ' )
bo 
holem (wide char)
 
o
bO 
holem (narrow char)
 
O
 
(shift- o) - also Mas abbrev, number mark
bu 
qibbuts (wide char)
 
u
bU 
qibbuts (narrow char)
 
U
 
shift- u)
b; 
shewa (wide char)
 
;
 
(semi-colon)
b: 
shewa (narrow char)
 
:
 
(colon, shift- ;)
K7 
shewa (final kaf)
 
7
bj 
hatef-patah (wide char)
 
j
bJ 
hatef-patah (narrow char)
 
J
 
(shift- j)
bv 
hatef-segol (wide char)
 
v
bV 
hatef-segol (narrow char)
 
V
 
(shift- v)
b/ 
hatef-qamets (wide char)
 
/
 
(forward slash)
b? 
hatef-qamets (narrow char)   
?
 
(shift- /)
 
Palestinian (super-linear) vowel points
b0 
patah/segol (wide char)
 
0
 
(zero)
bB       
patah/segol (narrow char)
 
B
 
(shift- b)
b2 
qamets (wide char)
 
2
bD 
qamets (narrow char)
 
D
 
(shift- d)
b3 
hireq (wide char)
 
3
bL 
hireq (narrow char)
 
L
 
(shift- l)
b4 
sere (wide char)
 
4
bS 
sere (narrow char)
 
S
 
(shift- s)
b5 
holem (wide char)
 
5
bX 
holem (narrow char)
 
X
 
(shift- x)
b6 
qibbuts (wide char)
 
6
bY 
qibbuts (narrow char)
 
Y
 
(shift- y)
b8 
shewa (wide char)
 
8
bZ 
shewa (narrow char)
 
Z
 
(shift- z)
b9 
hatef-qamets (wide char)
 
9
b* 
hatef-qamets (narrow char)   
*     
(shift- 8)
 
Other symbols
#&       
sin dot
 
&
 
(ampersand, shift- 7)
#$ 
shin dot
 
$
 
(dollar sign, shift- 4)
p@ 
dagesh (wide char)
 
@
 
(shift- 2) - also mappiq
p% 
dagesh (narrow char)    
%
 
(shift- 5) - also shureq dot
P, 
dagesh (yod)
 
,
 
(comma)
P^ 
dagesh (alef)
 
^
 
(caret, shift- 6)
b{ 
rafe (wide char)
 
{
 
(left brace, shift- [ )
b} 
rafe (narrow char)
 
}
 
(right brace, shift- ] )
- 
maqqef
 
-
 
(hyphen)
. 
sof pasuq
 
.
 
(period)
b\ 
meteg (wide char)
 
\
 
(backslash)
b| 
meteg (narrow char)
 
|
 
(virgule, shift- \ )
_ 
dash
 
_
 
(underscore, shift- - )
! 
paseq, vertical stroke
 
!
 
(exclamation mark, shift- 1)
 
space
 
space
 
Special characters for Masoretic notes
`       
single-word abbreviation    
`
 
(grave accent)
~ 
multi-word abbreviation
 
~
 
(tilde, shift- `)
bG 
circule (wide char)
 
G   
(shift- g)
bH 
circule (narrow char)
 
H
 
(shift- h)
 
Special characters for manuscript transcription
bQ       
sub-linear dot (wide char)
 
Q
 
(shift- q) - damaged character
bW 
sub-linear dot (narrow char)
 
W
 
(shift- w) - damaged character
bR 
sub-linear circle (wide char)
 
R
 
(shift- r) - uncertain character
bT 
sub-linear circle (narrow char)   
T     
(shift- t) - uncertain character