Braille

Introduction

Braille is a tactile writing system using characters formed on a grid of six dots. Each character represents one or more characters of letterpress. Those which represent several letters which are a word may be used to represent those letters within a word, for example (writing such contractions in upper-case) forty handy withies is written as FORty hANDy WITHies.

The Braille alphabet and other signs

The Braille alphabet is laid out quite systematically; the first ten letters use only the top two rows of dots, and then subsequent groups of ten signs repeat that pattern in the top two rows, adding different combinations of dots in the third row. At the end is a partial row containing signs in which the only dots in the top two rows are on the right-hand side of the cell, and hence could not be distinguished clearly from signs in the top row unless they had bottom dots added.

There are also some signs using just the bottom two rows; these are mostly context-dependent.

There are some further signs only used as part of compound signs, which I have shown only with the compound signs.

Braille also uses many abbreviations, formed simply by missing out particular letters of particular words.

Types of Braille

There are two kinds of Standard English Braille -- Grade I (just the letters and perhaps a few punctuation signs) and Grade II (the lot). Of course, Grade II Braille for other languages will be different, as each language will require different contractions and abbreviations.

The Braille alphabet

a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h	i	j
*- -- --	- - --	** -- --	** -* --	- - --	** *- --	--	- * --	-* *- --	-* ** --
k	l	m	n	o	p	q	r	s	t
- -- -	- - *-	** -- *-	** -* *-	- - *-	** - -	*-	- * *-	-* - -	-* ** *-
u	v	x	y	z	and	for	of	the	with
- -- *	- - **	--	** -* **	- - **	** - *	**	- * **	-* - *	-*
ch	gh	sh	th	wh	ed	er	ou	ow	w(1)
- -- -	- - -*	** -- -*	** -* -*	- - -*	** - -	-*	- * -*	-* - -	-* ** -*
st	ar(2)	ing	ble(3)
-* -- *-	-* -* *-	-* -- **	-* -* **

Note that this is not in its regular place in the construction of braille characters; Braille was invented by a Frenchman, and so originally did not include w. It is added in English Braille; if you look at the shapes of the characters, you will see that it actually belongs after ow.
or end of line, in poetry; use ARAR to start/stop poetry
or introduces a number, if at the start of a word; a=1, b=2 etc, i=9 j=0

Context-dependent signs

These signs are written using only the middle and lower rows of the cell; they are not used as wordsigns as they might not be distinguished from similar signs written in the upper and middle rows. Since they always occur as part of a word, they are made context-dependent according to where in the word they occur.

In middle of word	ea	bb	cc		ff	gg					com
At start of word	ea	be	con	en		(	``	in		Apostophe / maths comma	com
At end of word	,	;	:		!	)	?		''		hyphen
Dots	-- *- --	-- - -	-- ** --	-- - -	-- ** *-	--	-- - *	-- -* *-	-- -* **	-- -- *-	-- -- **

Compound signs and contractions

Signs with dots occurring only in the right-hand half of the cell might not be distinguishable from similar signs using dots only in the left-hand half if they appeared by themselves; so they are used in conjunction with the following cell as a compound contraction.

*	dash	[	]	`	'
-- -- -* -* - -	-- -- -- --	-- -- -- ** -* **	-- -- -- *-	-- -- -- - - **	-- -- -* -- ** *-

Many braille signs can stand for whole words -- ``wordsigns''. They can also stand for different words or groups of letters when preceded by a cell with dots in only the right-hand half.

Letter	Sign	Wordsign	Initial			Final
Letter	Sign	Wordsign	-- -* --	-* -* --	-* -* -*	-- -* --	-* -* --	-* -* -*
a	*- -- --	a
b	- - --	but
c	** -- --	can			cannot
d	** -* --	do	day			ound
e	- - --	every	ever			ance	ence
f	** *- --	from	father
g	--	go					ong
h	- * --	have	here		had
i	-* *- --	I
j	-* ** --	just
k	- -- -	knowledge	know
l	- - *-	like	Lord				ful
m	** -- *-	more	mother		many
n	** -* *-	not	name			sion	tion	ation
o	- - *-	O	one
p	** - -	people	part
q	*-	quite	question
r	- * *-	rather	right
s	-* - -	so	some		spirit	less	ness
t	-* ** *-	that	time			ount	ment
u	- -- *	us	under	upon
v	- - **	very
w	-* ** -*	will	work	word	world
x	--	it
y	** -* **	you	young
z	- - **	as
the	-* - *	the	there	these	their
ch	- -- -	child	character
sh	** -- -*	shall
th	** -* -*	this	through	those
wh	- - -*	which	where	whose
ou	- * -*	out	ought
be	-- - -	be
en	-- - -
ff	-- ** *-	to
gg	--	were
?	-- - *	his
in	-- -* *-	in
into	-- -- -* ** - -	into
	-- -* **	was and by
st	-* -- *-	still

Other modifiers

Accent	Italic	Letter	Capital / Maths separator	+	-	×	÷	=
-* -- --	-* -- -*	-- -* -*	-- -- -*	-- -- -* ** -* *-	-- -- -* -- -* **	-- -- -* - - **	-- -- -* ** -* -*	-- -- -* ** -* **

Abbreviations

about	ab
above	abv
according	ac
across	acr
after	af
afternoon	afn
afterward	afw
afterwards	afws
again	ag
against	agST
almost	alm
already	alr
also	al
although	alTH
alt	altogether
always	alw
because	BE
before	BEf
behind	BEh
below	BEl
beneath	BEn
beside	BEs
between	BEt
beyond	BEy
blind	bl
braille	brl
children	CHn
conceive	CONcv
conceiving	CONcvg
could	cd
deceive	dcv
deceiving	dcvg
declare	dcl
declaring	dclg
either	ei
first	fST
friend	fr
good	gd
great	grt
herself	hERf
him	hm
himself	hmf
immediate	imm
its	xs
itself	xf
letter	ll
little	ll
much	mCH
must	mST
myself	myf
necessary	nec
neither	nei
o'clock	o'c
oneself	ONEf
ourselves	OUrvs
paid	pd
perceive	pERcv
perceiving	pERcvg
perhaps	pERh
quick	qk
receive	rcv
receiving	rcvg
rejoice	rjc
rejoicing	rjcg
said	sd
should	SHd
such	sCH
themselves	THEmvs
thyself	THyf
today	td
together	tgr
tomorrow	tm
tonight	tn
would	wd
your	yr
yourself	yrf
yourselves	yrvs

Other Braille-related pages

You can see Braille personal organizers from Blazie Engineering, and Braille embossers (printers) from Enabling Technologies.

[Misc]

John C. G. Sturdy

Last modified: Sun Jun 10 22:10:59 GMT Daylight Time 2007