5

How can I have one keyboard input layout and multiples languages in Ubuntu 17.10? If I have English language I can't type "'e" and get an "é", as I can do in Portuguese and Spanish.

When I manage to do that on Settings -> Region & Language, I'm able to change languages, but it also changes the keyboard layout.

Is there any way to change language (Portuguese or Spanish for example) and set the keyboard input layout (US International for example)?

pomsky
  • 68,507
mqueirozcorreia
  • 215
  • 2
  • 6
  • You can set the keyboard input layout to US International according to this link, https://askubuntu.com/questions/967708/making-umlauts-in-ubuntu-17-10-on-a-thinkpad430/968758#968758; setxkbmap -rules evdev -model evdev -layout us -variant altgr-intl while a simple command would be for example setxkbmap es for Spanish. – sudodus Nov 05 '17 at 11:03

2 Answers2

7

The US International keyboard layout isn't designed for diacritics because the target language is English and English doesn't use diacritics (it should, at least for foreign words like fiancé or coupé, but it doesn't and it sometimes results in an incorrect pronunciation like "coupe" instead of "coupeh" - I'm looking at you US citizens, in the other side of the pound we do pronounce it correctly).

In order to use input languages requiring diacritics users must choose the "US International with dead keys" variant, with caveats:

  • The apostrophe key is the same for the acute diacritic symbol. With "dead keys" you must press SPACE after the key.
  • As above, quotation marks is used for diaeresis (umlaut) therefore if you want the quotation mark instead, you need to press SPACE after the key.
  • As a general rule all the characters with diacritics are produced by a sequence of two keys, first the diacritic symbol then the letter - Example: à is obtained by pressing ` followed by a - the same way used with French, Spanish (and others) keyboard layouts.
  • Other special characters aren't so obvious as the example above. For instance, for the character ç, used in Portuguese and Catalan, there are two ways: 1. AltGr+c or 2. ' folowed by c.
  • It really look like what I need, but there is no option of that here... I can see a lot of English options, but no dead keys. What version of Ubuntu do you have? – mqueirozcorreia Nov 06 '17 at 22:51
  • 2
    @mqueirozcorreia: Select English (United States) and then you'll find English (US, international with dead keys) in the next window. – Gunnar Hjalmarsson Nov 06 '17 at 23:17
  • “The apostrophe key is the same for the acute diacritic symbol. With "dead keys" you must press SPACE after the key.”—Or the dead key twice. Although personally I would prefer Space. – Guildenstern Nov 08 '17 at 12:05
  • Nice! I think it is very important to add "Select English (United States) and then you'll find English (US, international with dead keys) in the next window", if possible with image to help anyone who found this answer. – mqueirozcorreia Nov 09 '17 at 01:48
2

For a newly created account it might happen that the current input source is changed undesirably if you change the (display) language. However, once you have switched input source explicitly once or twice, the selected (display) language and the current input source should be mutually independent.

Consequently, the answer to your question is yes. You can have any combination of (display) language and input source.

Gunnar Hjalmarsson
  • 33,540
  • 3
  • 64
  • 94