Taiwanese Braille

Braille script used in Taiwan for Standard Mandarin

Taiwanese Braille

⠅⠒⠂⠳⠈⠀⠙⠞⠈⠓⠱⠐

Script type|

Semisyllabary

Print basis

| Zhuyin
Languages| Standard Mandarin
Related scripts

Parent systems

Night writing

* Braille
* Taiwanese Braille

A quadriscriptal text in Chinese and Roman print and braille. In the lower right corner is the character 結 jié, written in braille as ⠅⠬⠂ gyé; compare 西 xī at the center top, rendered in braille as ⠑⠡⠄ syī.

Taiwanese Braille is the braille script used in Taiwan for Taiwanese Mandarin (Guoyu).[1] Although based marginally on international braille, most consonants have been reassigned;[2] also, like Chinese Braille, Taiwanese Braille is a semi-syllabary.

An example is,

國 | 語 | 點 | 字 | 記 | 號

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|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
ㄍ | ㄨㄛ | ˊ | ㄩ | ˇ | ㄉ | ㄧㄢ | ˇ | ㄗ | ㄭ | ˋ | ㄐ | ㄧ | ˋ | ㄏ | ㄠ | ˋ
guó | yǔ | diǎn | zì | jì | hào

## Charts

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### Initials

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Zhuyin | ㄅ | ㄆ | ㄇ | ㄈ | ㄉ | ㄊ | ㄋ | ㄌ | ㄍ | ㄎ | ㄏ | ㄐ | ㄑ | ㄒ | ㄓ | ㄔ | ㄕ | ㄖ | ㄗ | ㄘ | ㄙ

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Pinyin | b | p | m | f | d | t | n | l | g | k | h | j | q | x | zh | ch | sh | r | z | c | s
Braille  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

The braille letters for zhuyin/pinyin ㄍ g (/k/), ㄘ c (/tsʰ/), and ㄙ s (/s/) double for the alveolo-palatal consonants ㄐ j (/tɕ/), ㄑ q (/tɕʰ/), and ㄒ x (/ɕ/).[3] The latter are followed by close front vowels, namely ㄧ i (/i/) and ㄩ ü (/y/), so the distinction between g, c, s (or z, k, h) and j, q, x in zhuyin and pinyin is redundant.

### Medial + rime

[edit]

Each medial + rime in zhuyin is written with a single letter in braille.

Zhuyin  | /ㄦ | ㄚ | ㄛ | ㄜ | ㄝ | ㄞ | ㄟ | ㄠ | ㄡ | ㄢ | ㄣ | ㄤ | ㄥ

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Pinyin  | -i/er | a | o | e | ê | ai | ei | ao | ou | an | en | ang | eng
Braille  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Zhuyin  | ㄧ | ㄧㄚ | ㄧㄛ |  | ㄧㄝ | ㄧㄞ |  | ㄧㄠ | ㄧㄡ | ㄧㄢ | ㄧㄣ | ㄧㄤ | ㄧㄥ
Pinyin  | i | ia | io |  | ie | iai |  | iao | iu | ian | in | iang | ing
Braille  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Zhuyin  | ㄨ | ㄨㄚ | ㄨㄛ |  |  | ㄨㄞ | ㄨㄟ |  |  | ㄨㄢ | ㄨㄣ | ㄨㄤ | ㄨㄥ
Pinyin  | u | ua | uo |  |  | uai | ui |  |  | uan | un | uang | ong
Braille  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Zhuyin  | ㄩ |  |  |  | ㄩㄝ |  |  |  |  | ㄩㄢ | ㄩㄣ |  | ㄩㄥ
Pinyin  | ü |  |  |  | üe |  |  |  |  | üan | ün |  | iong
Braille  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

⠱ is used for both the empty rime  -i ([ɨ]), which is not written in zhuyin, and the rime ㄦ er ([ɐɚ]). See for example 斯 sī (⠑⠱⠄) located above the word Daguerre in the image at right.

### Tone Marks

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Tone: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 0

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Zhuyin  | — | ˊ | ˇ | ˋ | ˙
Pinyin  | ˉ | ˊ | ˇ | ˋ | —
Braille  | ⠄ | ⠂ | ⠈ | ⠐ | ⠁

Tone is always marked.[4] This includes toneless syllables such as 了 le, rendered ⠉⠮⠁lė in the image above-right.

### Punctuation marks

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Punctuation[5]

Print  | 。 ・ | ， | ； | 、 | ？ | ！ | ：

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Braille  | ⠤ | ⠆ | ⠰ | ⠠ | ⠕ | ⠇ | ⠒⠒
Print  | ＿＿ | ﹏﹏ | …… | — | —— —— | ※ | ◎

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Braille  | ⠰⠰ | ⠠⠤ | ⠐⠐⠐ | ⠐⠂ | ⠐⠂ ⠐⠂ | ⠈⠼ | ⠪⠕
Print  | 「 ... 」 | 『 ... 』 | （ ... ） | 〔 ... 〕 | ｛ ... ｝

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Braille  | ⠰⠤ ... ⠤⠆ | ⠦⠦ ... ⠴⠴ | ⠪ ... ⠕ | ⠯ ... ⠽ | ⠦ ... ⠴

## References

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1. ^ Not for Taiwanese Hokkien, which commonly goes by the name "Taiwanese"
2. ^ Only p m d n g c a e ê ü (from p m d n k j ä è dropped-e ü) approximate the French norm. Other letters have been reassigned so that the sets of letters in groups such as d t n l and g k h are similar in shape.
3. ^ [sic] One might expect ㄐ j (/tɕ/) to pair with ㄗ z (/ts/), by analogy with the others. Compare here, where the character 學 xué is rendered ⠑⠦⠂ "süé". Historically it could have been either. The principal behind the assignments seems to be that, of the historically appropriate pairs of letters g~z, k~c, and h~s, the letter with the fewer dots is used for j, q, x.
4. ^ "JAPANESE BRAILLE. : languagehat.com". languagehat.com. Retrieved 2022-02-27.
5. ^ 萬明美, 2001, 「視障教育」, 五南圖書出版股份有限公司, p. 74 ff

## External links

[edit]

* 國語點字自學手冊, National Taiwan Library

(a copy here)

* v
* t
* e

Braille ⠃⠗⠁⠊⠇⠇⠑

Braille cell|

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People|

* Louis Braille
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* Róża Czacka
* Valentin Haüy
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* Sabriye Tenberken
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Organisations|

* Braille Institute of America
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Other tactile alphabets|

* Decapoint
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Related topics|

* Accessible publishing
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