AZERTY is a specific layout for the characters of the Latin alphabet on typewriter keys and computer keyboards. The layout takes its name from the first six letters to appear on the first row of alphabetical keys; that is, . Similar to the QWERTZ layout, it is modelled on the English QWERTY layout. It is used in France and Belgium, although each of these countries has its own national variation on the layout. Luxembourg and Switzerland use the Swiss QWERTZ keyboard. Most residents of Quebec, the mainly French-speaking province of Canada, use a QWERTY keyboard that has been adapted to the French language such as the Multilingual Standard keyboard CAN/CSA Z243.200-92 which is stipulated by the government of Quebec and the Government of Canada.[1] [2] [3]
The competing layouts devised for French (e.g., the ZHJAY layout put forward in 1907, Claude Marsan's 1976 layout, the 2002 Dvorak-fr, and the 2005 BÉPO layout) have obtained only limited recognition, although the latter has been included in the 2019 French keyboard layout standard.[4]
The AZERTY layout appeared in France in the last decade of the 19th century as a variation on American QWERTY typewriters. Its exact origin is unknown. At the start of the 20th century, the French ZHJAYS layout, created by Albert Navarre, failed to break into the market partly because secretaries were already accustomed to the AZERTY layout and partly because it differed more from the QWERTY layout than the AZERTY layout did.[5] [6]
In France, the AZERTY layout is the de facto norm for keyboards. In 1976, a QWERTY layout adapted to the French language was put forward, as an experimental standard (NF XP E55-060) by AFNOR. This standard made provision for a temporary adaptation period during which the letters A, Q, Z and W could be positioned as in the traditional AZERTY layout.
In January 2016, the French Culture Ministry has looked to replace the industrial AZERTY layouts with one that will allow a better typing of French and other languages.[7] A standard was published by the French national organization for standardization in 2019.[8]
The AZERTY layout is used on Belgian keyboards, although some non-alphabetic symbols are positioned differently.
There are two key details:
A dead key serves to modify the appearance of the next character to be typed on the keyboard. Dead keys are mainly used to generate accents (or diacritics) on vowels.
A circumflex accent can be generated by first striking the key (located to the right of in most AZERTY layouts), then the vowel requiring the accent (with the exception of y). For example, pressing then produces â.
A diaresis can be generated by striking the key (in most AZERTY layouts, it is generated by combining the keys), then the vowel requiring the accent. For example, pressing then produces ä.
The grave accent can be generated by striking the key (in the French AZERTY layout it is located to the right of the key) on Macintosh keyboards, while on PC-type keyboards it can be generated by using the combination .
In the Belgian AZERTY layout, the grave accent is generated by the combination (the key is located to the right of the key on Belgian AZERTY keyboards), and then the key for the vowel requiring the accent.
The grave-accented letters à, è, and ù (as well as the acute-accented é), which are part of French orthography, have their own separate keys. Dead-grave and dead-acute (and dead-tilde) would mostly be reserved to "foreign" letters such as Italian ò, Spanish á, í, ó, ú, and ñ, Portuguese ã and õ, etc., or for accented capital letters (which are not present precomposed in the layout).
The acute accent is available under Windows by the use of, then the vowel requiring the accent. The é combination can be generated using its own key. For Linux users, it can be generated using then the vowel. On a Macintosh AZERTY keyboard, the acute accent is generated by a combination of the, keys, followed by the vowel.
In the Belgian AZERTY layout, a vowel with an acute accent can be generated by a combination of, then the vowel.
The acute accent is not available in the French layout on Windows.
The tilde is available under Windows by using a combination of the keys, followed by the letter requiring the tilde.
On Macs, the ñ can be obtained by the combination of keys, followed by the key.
In the Belgian AZERTY layout, ñ can be generated by a combination of .
See main article: Alt code. With some operating systems, the Alt key generates characters by means of their individual codes. In order to obtain characters, the Alt key must be pressed and held down while typing the relevant code into the numeric keypad.
On Linux, the Alt key gives direct access to French-language special characters. The ligatures œ and æ can be keyed in by using and respectively, in the fr-oss keyboard layout; their uppercase equivalents can be generated using the same key combinations plus the Shift key. Other useful punctuation symbols, such as ≤, ≥, or ≠, can be more easily accessed in the same way.
See main article: Guillemet. Also called angle quotes, French quotation marks, or double chevrons, these polylines are pointed like arrows (« or »), sometimes forming a complementary set of punctuation marks used as a form of quotation mark.
| « | Alt + 0171 | Alt + 7598 | Alt + 174 | Alt + 686 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| » | Alt + 0187 | Alt + 7599 | Alt + 175 | Alt + 687 |
Macintosh users can type « as and » as . (This applies to all English-language keyboard layouts supplied with the operating system, e.g. "Australian", "British", "Canadian", "Irish", "Irish Extended", "U.S." and "U.S. Extended". Other language layouts may differ.) In French-language keyboard layouts and can be used. On Nordic keyboards, can be used for «, and can be used for ».
For users of Unix-like operating systems running the X Window System, creation of the guillemet depends on a number of factors including the keyboard layout that is in effect. For example, with the US International Keyboard layout selected, a user would type for « and for ». On some configurations they can be generated by typing « as and » as . With the compose key, press and . Additionally with the ibus input method framework enabled, users may enter these characters into those applications that accept it by using followed by their Unicode code points: either or, respectively.
In Microsoft Office applications, typing the US quotation mark (on the key) will produce either a left guillemet « or right guillemet » based on the spacing.
In X11, the window system common to many flavors of UNIX, the keyboard interface is completely configurable, allowing each user to assign different functions to each key in line with their personal preferences. For example, specific combinations of key could be assigned to many other characters.
It is possible to fill in these gaps by installing a keyboard driver that has been specially enriched for the French language.[9]
One can also use WinCompose in order to easily type all characters. The character Ç could be typed by pressing or the character « with, and there is also an option to allow typing accentuated capitals with such that Ç can be typed with .
Some word-processing software packages address some of these gaps. The non-breaking space can be obtained by pressing followed by a space, in a word-processing package such as OpenOffice.org Writer, or by using [Spacebar] in Microsoft Word.
Apart from these gaps, the French AZERTY layout has some strange features which are still present in the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system:
In January 2016, the French Ministry of Culture, which is in charge of language affairs, expressed a will to offer an alternative to the AZERTY layouts traditionally proposed by the industry. The new layout would have to provide full coverage of the symbols required by French spelling (including accented capitals such as É) as well as other languages of France and European languages written with the Latin alphabet.[10] The project, led by the French national organization for standardization AFNOR, released both this improved AZERTY and a BÉPO layout. Initially due in January 2018, the standard was released in April 2019.
The layout keeps the same placement for the 26 Latin letters and 10 digits, but moves others (such as some accented letters and punctuation signs), while it adds a range of other symbols (accessible with Shift, AltGr). There is easy access to guillemets « » (French quotes), accented capital letters: À, É, Ç, as well as Œ/œ, Æ/æ, which was not possible before on basic AZERTY (Windows' AZERTY); previously alt codes were required.
It allows typing words in many languages using dead keys, which are in blue on the picture, to access a variety of diacritics. A few mathematics symbols have also been added.
A website for the new AZERTY layout has been created, offering information, visuals of the changes, links to drivers to install the layout and various other resources.
The Belgian AZERTY keyboard allows for the placing of accents on vowels without recourse to encoding via the Alt key + code. This is made possible by the provision of dead keys for each type of accent: ^ ¨ ´ ` (the last two being generated by a combination of and μ respectively).
To recap the list of different keys from left to right and from top to bottom: