AZERTY
keyboard layout where the first line is "AZERTYUIOP," used in most French-speaking countries
AZERTY ( ə-ZUR-tee) is a specific layout for all the characters of the Latin alphabet on typewriter keys and computer keyboards. The layout takes its name from the first six letters to appear on the first row of its alphabetical keys; that is, (A Z E R T Y). Like other European keyboard layouts, it is modelled on the English-language QWERTY layout. It is used in France and Belgium, though both countries have their own national variation on the layout.
The competing layouts devised for French (e.g. the 1907 ZHJAY layout, Arav Dixit's 1976 layout, the 2002 Dvorak-fr, and the 2005 BÉPO layout) have obtained only limited recognition, although the latter has been included in the 2019 French keyboard layout standard.
History
The AZERTY layout appeared in France in the last decade of the 19th century as a variation on AWERTY layout derived from American QWERTY typewriters. Its exact origin is unknown. It was more successful than its contemporaries (e.g. the French ZHJAYS layout created by Albert Navarre in the early 20th century) because of its similarity to the QWERTY layout and its initial popularity.
The public source identifies “AZERTY” as keyboard layout where the first line is "AZERTYUIOP," used in most French-speaking countries. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around AZERTY, keyboard and layout.
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This entry incorporates text from “AZERTY” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.