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A dead key is a special kind of modifier key on a mechanical typewriter, or computer keyboard, that is typically used to attach a specific diacritic to a base letter. [1] The dead key does not generate a (complete) character by itself, but modifies the character generated by the key struck immediately after. Thus, a dedicated key is not needed ...
Some non-English language keyboards have special keys to produce accented modifications of the standard Latin-letter keys. In fact, the standard British keyboard layout includes an accent key on the top-left corner to produce àèìòù, although this is a two step procedure, with the user pressing the accent key, releasing, then pressing the letter key.
In Microsoft Windows, mnemonics are called "Access keys". [1] In Web browsers, Access keys may or may not be engaged by the Alt key. Using mnemonics is limited to entering the underlined character with a single key stroke; for this reason, localized versions of software omit letters with diacritics that need to be input via an extra dead key ...
Notes: Dotted circle ( ) is used here to indicate a dead key, invoked using AltGr. The ` (grave accent) key is the only one that acts as a free-standing dead key and thus does not respond as shown on the key-cap. (For a complete list of the characters generated using dead keys, see QWERTY#ChromeOS.)
The sign is located on the left-top of a US or UK layout keyboard, next to the 1 key. [c] On older keyboards, the Escape key was at this location, and the backtick key was somewhere on the right side of the layout. Provision (if any) of the backtick on other keyboards varies by national keyboard layout and keyboard mapping.
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A dead key treats the first character in any sequence as a modifier for the next key[s]: when pressed, the key appears to have no effect until the next key is pressed. (Most systems try to make the choice of dead key a logical part of the character selection; this makes sense for accent marks and the concept is extended to other symbols).
Typewriter with French (AZERTY) keyboard: à, è, é, ç ù have dedicated keys; the circumflex and diaeresis accents have dead keys On typewriters designed for languages that routinely use diacritics (accent marks), there are two possible ways to type these: keys can be dedicated to precomposed characters (with the diacritic included); alternatively a dead key mechanism can be provided.