Why Unicode? Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard, is an international text encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text written in all of the world’s major writing systems. Using Unicode allows you to send e-mails to people and post things on the internet, without people having to have the specials fonts or keyboards on their computers.  Keyboards CAN NOT translate! In other words, you cannot type something in English and expect to get Lushootseed out.

Lushootseed Unicode Keyboard Map

Lushoootseed Keyboard Map – PDF

 The keyboard was primarily designed for use with the Lushootseed School and Lushootseed Sulad fonts. Both were designed for the Tulalip Lushootseed Department of the Tulalip Tribes of Washington.

This free keyboard is from Keyman, http://www.keyman.com/ it was developed with the Tulalip Tribes. Keyman was purchased by SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics), and the software is now free. 

These Lushootseed fonts only have characters and some glyphs used for Lushootseed.

Lushootseed School – Font

LushootseedSulad – Font

Another font that we like to use that contains characters for all the languages of the world and was designed for easy learning is Andika, which was developed by SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics). You can get Andika at the SIL website, here.

Lushootseed Keyboard ChromeApp 

Now Lushootseed Keyboard is available as a Chrome Extension.   Chromebooks, which operate on the ChromeOS are popular in many schools and Universities.  Google is looking at eliminating this input format.

  Link is here.

Mobile Keyboards

Keyman is available for both Android and iOS. After being installed select the first Lushootseed Keyboard and activate that keyboard. Keyman also you to easily toggle between English and Lushootseed and includes all the proper Unicode characters. Also available for Android is the is Multiling O keyboard, with many languages available for download. The downside is it’s slightly more difficult to set up.

Our Table – tibučəɬ    iOS/Android

At Tulalip, our table is a place of family gathering, where we share songs, stories, jokes, food and love. We want to hear our traditional language spoken around the table as elders, parents and children share their lives. That is why we created this app.

Set this app on your table, and you and your family can practice the language of our elders as you share a meal together. Learn and practice how to say “Please give me…” and “Please pass the __ to __.”

Download the iOS app Here.

Download the App for Android Here.

This project is a collaboration between the Betty J Taylor Early Learning Academy, The Tulalip Tribes Lushootseed Language Department, and FizzBrain Apps.

Android apps

Lushootseed characters are from the International Phonetic Alphabet. This app goes over the most commonly used characters used in Lushootseed. Users can hear the individual characters as well as words that use the characters. The app also goes over how the language has changed over time, especially after the influence of western culture. Google Play store listing.