Basque Keyboard Online – Free Virtual Euskara Keyboard
Free Online Basque Keyboard – Type Euskara, a Language With No Known Relatives
Welcome to the Basque keyboard online (euskal teklatua). It gives you everything written Basque needs, with nothing to download and no system settings to change. Click the keys on screen, or type on your physical keyboard and watch the matching character land in the text box above.
What sits where. The layout is a standard QWERTY arrangement with three additions. ñ takes the key immediately to the right of L, where a Spanish keyboard also puts it, while ü and ç occupy the two keys just right of P. Hold Shift, or switch on Caps, for Ñ, Ü and Ç. Digits and punctuation stay where you expect them.
A language isolate. Euskara is the only surviving language in western Europe with no known relatives. It is not Romance, not Celtic, not Indo-European at all, and centuries of comparison with other families have produced no accepted connection. It was spoken in the western Pyrenees before Latin arrived and still is, by roughly 750,000 people across the Basque Country, Navarre and the French Basque provinces.
One written standard, many dialects. Basque dialects diverge sharply, which long made publishing and schooling awkward. From the 1960s the Royal Academy of the Basque Language, Euskaltzaindia, founded in 1919, built a unified written form known as euskara batua, with the decisive congress at Arantzazu in 1968. Batua is what you see in newspapers, textbooks and official documents.
The alphabet. Basque uses 27 letters: the 26 of the Latin alphabet plus ñ. Five of them, c, q, v, w and y, appear almost entirely in loanwords, foreign names and scientific terms rather than in native vocabulary, which is why Basque text looks strikingly light on those letters.
Digraphs do a lot of work. The combinations tx, tz and ts write three distinct affricate sounds and appear constantly, in words such as txakur, hitz and hots, along with dd, ll, rr and tt. Each is typed as two ordinary keystrokes, so no extra keys are needed.
Related keyboards: Basque speakers usually work alongside one of the two state languages, so the Spanish keyboard and the French AZERTY keyboard are both available from the Layout dropdown above.
Your privacy is guaranteed — all typing happens locally in your browser. Nothing you write is sent to a server, stored or logged. When the text is ready, one click on Copy puts it on your clipboard for pasting into a document, a message or a form.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I type ñ on this Basque keyboard?
Click the key immediately to the right of L, or press the semicolon key on your physical keyboard, and you get lowercase ñ. Hold Shift, or switch on Caps, for the capital Ñ. It is the same position a Spanish keyboard uses, so the muscle memory carries over if you already type Spanish.
How is this different from the official Basque keyboard layout?
There is no separate national Basque layout. Basque is typed on the Spanish or French ISO keyboard, where ñ has a dedicated key and ü comes from a dead-key diaeresis. This on-screen version gives ñ, ü and ç a key each, since an on-screen keyboard cannot do dead keys, and arranges punctuation US-style. The letters produced are identical.
Will my Basque text copy correctly into other apps?
Yes. Everything here is standard Unicode, so ñ, ü and ç paste cleanly into word processors, email, messaging apps, spreadsheets and websites without turning into boxes or question marks. Press Copy and paste as normal. Every common font covers the Basque alphabet in full.
Is Basque related to Spanish or French?
No. Basque is a language isolate with no demonstrated relatives anywhere, while Spanish and French are Romance languages descended from Latin. Basque has borrowed a great deal of vocabulary from its neighbours over two thousand years of contact, but its grammar and core vocabulary are unrelated to theirs.
What is euskara batua?
The unified written standard of Basque, developed from the 1960s by Euskaltzaindia, the Royal Academy of the Basque Language, and consolidated at the 1968 Arantzazu congress. It gave the dialects a common spelling and grammar for publishing and schooling, and it is the form used in the media, in administration and in most Basque teaching today.
How many letters does the Basque alphabet have?
Twenty-seven: the twenty-six Latin letters plus ñ. In practice c, q, v, w and y turn up mainly in loanwords, place names from other languages and technical terms, so native Basque words rarely use them. All of them are on this keyboard regardless, in their usual QWERTY positions.
How do I type tx, tz and ts?
As two keystrokes each, exactly as on any physical keyboard. These digraphs write three separate affricate consonants and are extremely common in Basque, appearing in everyday words such as txiki, hitz and hots, and in names like Aitzol. No special key or key combination is involved.
When do Basque writers need ü and ç?
Rarely, but usefully. The letter ü belongs to the Souletin dialect of the French Basque Country, and both ü and ç appear in surnames, place names and older French-side spellings. Having them on a key means you can write those names accurately instead of substituting plain u and c.
Is the Basque keyboard free, private and usable on mobile?
Yes to all three. There is no cost, no registration and no usage limit, and advertising is what keeps it free. All typing is processed locally in your browser and never reaches a server. The layout is responsive, so you can tap out Basque on an Android or iOS phone, a tablet or a Chromebook.
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