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I've installed the Paleo-Hebrew (PH) alphabet font in my Win10. I can use it in MS word after installation but the problem is the PH Alef () Isn't eqivalent to the MH Alef (א).

Moreover, when I go to MS WORD and chooses PH font, it will let me write letters in it only if I'm in English, and in anyway the keyboard isn't synchronized, for example, when I type the Alef key I get another PH letter while in MH mode I will get Alef.

  • Do you usually use an IME (Input Method, Input Tool, Keyboard Software) to write Paleo-Hebrew? Like I know CJK (Chinese, Japanese and Korean) characters are entered as combination of key strokes and require an IME to interpret these key strokes. If so you may look for a software solution. As try Windows keyboard layouts. I don't speak Hebrew so I'm not gonna write an answer. – Vassile Feb 18 '16 at 05:08
  • Where can we get that font and how do we type the Alef? – harrymc Feb 18 '16 at 08:12
  • If you write "Paleo hebrew font" the first link you will have to "BiblePlaces" contains it. To write it you can type T. To write Bet (the second char in Hebrew) you can type C. –  Feb 18 '16 at 11:00
  • I have installed it on my computer and typed in Word 2010 the text "tTcC". The result [is here](http://i.stack.imgur.com/rYvuV.jpg) and doesn't look like yours - please verify if mine is correct. If mine is correct - try to reinstall the font. If that doesn't help - which versions of Windows and Word do you use? – harrymc Feb 18 '16 at 11:28
  • Indeed, it seems in your computer it also mis-interperts the keys... What you got there seems to me like ציתת and not אב... So, I don't know what to say.. I had a similar problem, in my PC it also printed ת instead of א just like in your check... –  Feb 18 '16 at 12:14
  • BTW I didn't try IME yet... –  Feb 18 '16 at 12:14
  • My test was on Windows 7. If my results are identical to yours on Windows 10, I would think that there is a problem with the font itself. But maybe you are wrong about the keyboard : I have typed the letters a-to-z in PH and compared with [this table](http://www.thekeyofknowledge.net/Hebrew/N_HebrewLang.html). I think that the aleph is "a", beth is "b" etc. It seems like creators of the font tried to use the nearest english letters to the hebrew ones, going by their sound. – harrymc Feb 18 '16 at 12:49
  • You mean to say you think I use a font that have the right letters but not in the suitable configuration for Hebrew keyboards? It is an interesting claim but If I am not wrong I also tried other fonts (like Samaritan Hebrew which is a dialect of the Paleo Hebrew or Amonite Cananite which also acts as a direct Paleo Hebrew dialect) and these also didn't work... I will try though to search for such fonts in Modern Hebrew sites... Another solution could be to change the keyboard-configuration with this font we both tried... Is there any software that will let me do that easy? –  Feb 18 '16 at 12:58
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    [AutoHotkey](https://autohotkey.com/) will let you reprogram the keyboard as you like and much more. Try also typing a-z, as you can read these characters. – harrymc Feb 18 '16 at 13:17
  • Aside from convention, there is no reason the font maker needs to put the glyphs in any particular order (think: wingdings). YOu can inspect the glyph-to-key assignment using Windows Character Map ("charmap.exe") – Yorik Feb 19 '16 at 16:43

1 Answers1

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I have installed the Paleo-Hebrew font and tried it with Word 2010. Typing the characters a to z gives this text:

Paleo-Hebrew

Going by the The Hebrew Language table that I found, and using the Middle characters, these characters correspond to :

a - aleph
b - bet
c - tsade
d - dal
e - shin
f - gam
g - hey
i - tet

Now I have found another Hebrew font, Evyoni Paleo, with which the same a-z gives this :

Evyoni Paleo

Here we can see :

a - aleph
b - bet
c - unused
d - dal
e - unused
f - pey
g - gam
i - unused

I haven't gone any further with the correspondence, but if we compare to a Hebrew keyboard layout that I found :

Hebrew keyboard

My conclusion is that both fonts work correctly, except maybe the Evyoni Paleo font maps less characters, but both have tried to associate the English and Hebrew characters phonetically by their sounds, rather than adhering to the Hebrew keyboard layout, according to the English keyboard.

If you would rather map them to Hebrew keyboard, you could use a product such as AutoHotkey that can reprogram the keyboard and much more.

harrymc
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    Indeed, it seems the font creators tried to suit it phonetically to English letters and NOT in accordance with modern Hebrew keyboards. Your solution is very interesting to me, thank you! :) –  Feb 19 '16 at 17:12
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    These are not Unicode fonts. Choosing a Paleo-Hebrew Unicode font will match the same letters as Modern Hebrew in most cases. Although ancient semitic scripts have their own unicode range, most of the fonts I've seen provide glyphs in both ranges to make them compatible with Modern Hebrew. – Nilpo Nov 01 '16 at 04:30