CLDR-19605: Add Nogai (nog) Runic keyboard layout

[murza-enikeeff]

CLDR-19605

• This PR completes the ticket.

Sociolinguistic and Technical Justification for Nogai Layout (nog-Runr)

Depends on CLDR-19605 (Core Data)

1. UNESCO Status and Current Linguistic Peril

The Nogai language (nog) is officially classified by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger as "Definitely Endangered." The language faces severe existential pressure due to a historical lack of institutional support, a critical shortage of native-language schools, and systematic displacement from official and educational spheres. Providing native digital input mechanisms is a critical, non-negotiable step toward preventing total language extinction.

2. Historical Context: Forced Script Transitions as Structural Assimilation

The orthographic history of the Nogai language is a documentation of forced linguistic engineering and voluntary-compulsory Russification of minoritized indigenous peoples:

• Pre-1928: The Nogai people utilized a highly functional Arabic-based script, maintaining deep cultural and historical ties with their heritage.
• 1928–1938: The Arabic script was officially replaced by a Latin-based alphabet.
• 1938–Present: As part of a centralized policy of forced cultural assimilation, the Latin script was abruptly abolished and replaced with a modified Cyrillic alphabet.

These rapid, politically driven script disruptions fractured intergenerational literacy, isolated the population from their historical literature, and acted as structural elements of linguistic ethnocide.

3. Digital Marginalization as Ongoing Assimilation

Currently, major operating systems and input engines (including Google Gboard, iOS, and Windows) completely lack native support for Nogai layouts. This absence forces Nogai speakers into absolute digital dependency on surrogate layouts:

• Forced Substitution: Speakers are systematically forced to use either standard Russian or Kazakh keyboards.
• Technical Fragmentation: Using the Russian layout forces users to manually split native digraphs (Аь, Оь, Уь, Нъ) into separate characters. This breaks digital text processing, renders spell-check and predictive text impossible, and corrupts corpus linguistics data.
• Digital Colonialism: Forcing an endangered language community to adopt the dominant state language's layout (Russian) functions as an ongoing mechanism of digital assimilation, stripping the language of its visual autonomy.

4. Technical Philosophy of the Runic Layout (nog-Runr.xml)

The proposed nog-Runr.xml layout is engineered to support a powerful grassroots cultural revival and historical reclamation movement among younger generations, activists, and researchers seeking to reconnect with their pre-colonial roots.
It is designed to serve a dual purpose: providing a clean, accessible typing experience for modern digital communication, while establishing an absolute reference standard for the historical and linguistic community.
Key architectural decisions include:

• Clean Phonetic Base Layer: The primary UI is strictly optimized for modern Nogai phonology. It clearly maps the distinct front and back consonant pairings inherent to the language (e.g., 𐰴/𐰚, 𐱃/𐱅, 𐰞/𐰠) alongside core vowels (𐰀, 𐰃, 𐰆, 𐰇). This allows for fluid, intuitive typing of modern Nogai vocabulary without cluttering the main interface.
• Academic Depth via Longpress: To empower researchers to accurately transcribe authentic historical artifacts (encompassing both Orkhon and Yenisei epigraphic styles) directly from the keyboard, essential Yenisei regional variants and specific historical ligatures have been systematically integrated into the longpress menus. For example, Yenisei variants like '𐰈' and '𐰜' are logically nested under the '𐰇' key.
• Historical Ligatures: Complex historical ligatures required for accurate epigraphic transcription (such as '𐰨', '𐰪', '𐰩', '𐰦' nested under '𐰤', and '𐱁𐰲' nested under '𐱁') are preserved and made easily accessible.

This strategic separation ensures the layout remains an intuitive daily driver for modern enthusiasts, while simultaneously serving as a comprehensive, academic-grade tool for transcribing ancient Turkic monuments.

Conclusion

By unifying these graphic systems into a cohesive, longpress-accessible architecture, this specification empowers a marginalized speech community to bypass structural barriers, reclaim their graphic history, and democratically determine the future trajectory of their language.

ALLOW_MANY_COMMITS=true