Multilingual Finnish keyboard (SFS 5966)

½
§	d-

!	¡
1

"	”
2	@

#	»
3	£

¤	«
4	$

%	“
5	‰

&	„
6	‚

/
7	{

(
8	[

)
9	]

=	°
0	}

?	¿
+	\

`	˛
´	¸

Q

W

E
	€

R

T	Þ
	þ

Y

U

I
	ı

O	Œ
	œ

P	̛
	̉

Å	˚
	˝

^	¯
¨	~

A
	ə

S
	ß

D	Ð
	ð

F

G

H

J

K
	ĸ

L
	d-

Ö	Ø
	ø

Ä	Æ
	æ

*	˘
'	̌

>
<	\|

Z	Ʒ
	ʒ

X	·
	×

C

V

B

N	Ŋ
	ŋ

M	—
	µ

;	‘
,	’

:	˙
.	.

_
-	–


	NBSP

AltGr

The multilingual Finnish keyboard is defined in the national standard SFS 5966. Designed for physical keyboards as sold in Finland and Sweden, it enables easy input of Finnish and Swedish, but it also covers Sámi languages used in Finland as well as almost all European languages written in Latin letters.

This layout is available as built-in on Linux systems. For Windows, you need to download and install it e.g. from https://jkorpela.fi/sfs5966u.zip or as a “combining diacritics” implementation from . https://jkorpela.fi/ficd.zip-->.

The keyboard layout makes heavy use of the AltGr (right Alt) key and keys or key combinations used to add diacritic marks on characters.

In the layout diagram above, each key contains one to four symbols as follows:

lower left: the character produced by the key as such

upper left: the character produced by the key when used together with the Shift key

lower right: the character produced by the key when used together with the AltGr key (right Alt)

upper right: the character produced by the key when used together with both the Shift key and the AltGr key

The diagram does not contain the following amendments that were made to the standard in 2019:

Key combination

Meaning

AltGr Shift - (hyphen)

dead key for comma below

AltGr Shift space

narrow no-break space (NNBSP)

AltGr Shift S

capital sharp s, ẞ (U+1E9E)

The following table explains those parts of the layout that are not obvious enough, e.g. because some characters are not easily recognized or distinguished from their shape alone.

Symbol

Key comb.

Explanation

AltGr §

Adds a stroke to the letter typed next, e.g. turning L to Ł.

”

AltGr Shift 2

Typographically correct (curly) double quote in Finnish. Closing double quote in English and other languages.

“

AltGr Shift 5

Typographically correct (curly) opening double quote in English and other languages.

‚

AltGr 6

Single low-9 quotation mark.

AltGr Shift 0

Degree sign, as in e.g. 15 °C.

Adds an acute accent to the letter typed next, turning e.g. e to é.

Shift ´

Adds a grave accent to the letter typed next, turning e.g. e to è.

AltGr ´

Adds a cedilla to the letter typed next, turning e.g. c to ç.

AltGr Shift ´

Adds an ogonek to the letter typed next, turning e.g. a to ą.

AltGr S

German sharp s (Eszett). Not Greek letter β.

AltGr P

Adds a horn (used in Vietnamese) to the letter typed next, turning e.g. o to ơ.

AltGr Shift P

Adds a hook above (used in Vietnamese) to the letter typed next, turning e.g. o to ỏ.

AltGr Å

Adds a double acute (used in Hungarian) to the letter typed next, turning o to ő and u to ű.

Adds a dieresis to the letter typed next, turning e.g. e to ë.

Shift ¨

Adds a circumflex to the letter typed next, turning e.g. e to ê.

AltGr Shift ¨

Adds a macron to the letter typed next, turning e.g. e to ē

AltGr Shift D

Capital letter eth, used in Icelandic; uppercase version of ð. Identical in shape to D with stroke, used in Croatian, but different from it in code.

AltGr K

The letter kra, used in old orthography of Greenlandic.

AltGr L

Adds a stroke to the letter typed next, e.g. turning L to Ł. Duplicates Alt § (since the § key may be absent).

AltGr '

Adds a caron (háček) to the letter typed next, turning e.g. s to š.

AltGr Shift '

Adds a breve to the letter typed next, turning e.g. a to ă. The breve is curved, as opposite to the caron, which is angular.

AltGr Z

The letter ezh, used e.g. in Sámi languages.

AltGr Shift Z

The letter ezh in uppercase.

AltGr X

Multiplication sign, as in 2 × 2 = 4.

AltGr Shift X

Middle dot, used in Catalan and as a replacement for various characters, e.g. as multiplication dot instead of the more correct DOT OPERATOR (⋅, U+22C5).

AltGr N

The letter eng, used e.g. in Sámi languages and in phonetic notations. Not to be confused with Greek letter eta (η).

AltGr M

Micro sign, as in µm (micrometer).

—

AltGr Shift M

The em dash, used especially in American English.

’

AltGr ,

Typographically correct (curly) apostrophe as used in English, Finnish etc. Also used as single quote in Finnish, closing single quote in English.

‘

AltGr Shift ,

Typographically correct (curly) opening single quote in English and other languages.

AltGr .

Adds a dot below to the letter typed next, turning e.g. a to ạ.

AltGr Shift .

Adds a dot above to the letter typed next, turning e.g. z to ż.

Shift -

Low line, underscore. Used mainly in computer languages, filenames, etc.

–

AltGr -

The en dash, used for punctuation and range notations like 1–10 (1 to 10).

NBSP

AltGr space

No-break space. Like normal space, but prevents line wrapping.

When a key or key combination is described as adding a mark on the next letter, you can produce character that corresponds to the mark by typing a space instead of a letter. Thus, e.g. Shift ¨ SPACE produces the tilde character (~).

The diacritic marks cannot be combined with letters arbitrarily. The possible combinations are described in the document Precomposed characters in the new Finnish keyboard layout specification (actually just a draft, but only some additions have been made). This is based on the use of such combinations in European languages and to some extent Vietnamese.

The standard also specifies a possible implementation with combining diacritic marks. This means that e.g. the acute accent key is not a dead key but produces a combining acute accent (U+0301), and it is pressed after typing the base letter. In this approach, any diacritic mark can be combined with any letter, even any character. This also allows multiple diacritic marks on one character, such as ệ (e with circumflex above and dot below).