Welsh / Cymraeg Support in Windows Phone 8

12. December 2013 15:29 by Chris in   //  Tags:   //   Comments (0)

I'm writing a Welsh app and I suddenly wondered whether Windows Phone 8 would support entering Welsh language text and I'm thinking primarily accents here. Google told me that if I held down the onscreen key while entering text I'd get the accented versions of the characters. Well I got some more common ones but no ŵ, for example. I investigated the phone language setting options: 

  • Phone language: there was a general "English" setting (nothing UK/ GB specific) and a English (US). I was set to the default "English"
  • Country/ region: UK here; no Wales/ Cymru so left this at UK
  • Regional format: there was a UK (Welsh) option here so I tried this (it did require a phone restart)

Was I then able to enter the accented characters as are required of the Welsh language?

No. This did seem to change my UI language to Welsh though differences were minimal; I guess it is up to app developers to ensure they support the regional formats.

However, if I then went to Outlook and tried to enter a few Welsh words with accented characters - no joy ... I couldn't enter ŵ or ŷ but then again I'm not sure how to enter them in the web UI I'm using to write this blog entry!

Interestingly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_language indicates 'On iOS devices Welsh accented characters such as ŵ, ŷ, ô and ï are available by pressing and holding the characters on the virtual keyboard, and the Calendar can also be shown in Welsh.' and 'On Android devices, user-created keyboards can be used' though I've not checked either option out.

Next step is to ask Microsoft if I can enter accented characters at all?

 

 

 

 

 

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About the author

I am Dr Christopher Sully (MCPD, MCSD) and I am a Cardiff, UK based IT Consultant/ Developer and have been involved in the industry since 1996 though I started programming considerably earlier than that. During the intervening period I've worked mainly on web application projects utilising Microsoft products and technologies: principally ASP.NET and SQL Server and working on all phases of the project lifecycle. If you might like to utilise some of the aforementioned experience I would strongly recommend that you contact me. I am also trying to improve my Welsh so am likely to blog about this as well as IT matters.

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