(Mainland) Chinese Braille is a
braille
Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are blind, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on embossed paper or by using refreshable braille disp ...
script used for
Standard Mandarin in
China. Consonants and basic finals conform to
international braille, but additional finals form a
semi-syllabary, as in
zhuyin
Bopomofo (), or Mandarin Phonetic Symbols, also named Zhuyin (), is a Chinese transliteration system for Mandarin Chinese and other related languages and dialects. More commonly used in Taiwanese Mandarin, it may also be used to transcribe ...
(bopomofo). Each syllable is written with up to three Braille cells, representing the
initial
In a written or published work, an initial capital, also referred to as a drop capital or simply an initial cap, initial, initcapital, initcap or init or a drop cap or drop, is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter, or a paragraph that ...
,
final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
* Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...
, and
tone, respectively. In practice tone is generally omitted as it is in
pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...
.
Braille charts
Traditional Chinese Braille is as follows:
Initials
Chinese Braille initials generally follow the
pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...
assignments of international braille. However, ''j, q, x'' are replaced with ''g, k, h'', as the difference is predictable from the final. (This reflects the historical change of ''g, k, h'' (and also ''z, c, s'') to ''j, q, x'' before ''i'' and ''ü''.) The digraphs ''ch, sh, zh'' are assigned to (its pronunciation in
Russian Braille
Russian Braille is the braille alphabet of the Russian language. With suitable extensions, it is used for languages of neighboring countries that are written in Cyrillic in print, such as Ukrainian and Mongolian. It is based on the Latin trans ...
), (a common pronunciation in
international braille), and . ''R'' is assigned to , reflecting the old
Wade-Giles transcription of . ( is used for the final ''er'', the pronunciation of the name of that letter in
English Braille.)
Finals
The finals approximate
international
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
values for several of the basic vowels ( ''e (o)'', ''yi'', ''wo'', ''wu'', ''yü'', ''you'', ''ei''), but then necessarily diverge. However, there are a few parallels with other braille alphabets: ''er'' and ''wai'' are pronounced like the names of those letters in
English braille; ''ye'', ''ya'', and ''you'' are pronounced like those letters in
Russian Braille
Russian Braille is the braille alphabet of the Russian language. With suitable extensions, it is used for languages of neighboring countries that are written in Cyrillic in print, such as Ukrainian and Mongolian. It is based on the Latin trans ...
. ''yuan'', ''yue'', ''yin'', are similar to the
old French pronunciations ''oin, ieu, in.'' For the most part, however, Chinese Braille finals do not obviously derive from previous conventions.
The pinyin final ''-i'' is only written where it corresponds to ''yi''. Otherwise* (in ''ci zi si ri chi zhi shi'') no final is written, a convention also found in ''
zhuyin
Bopomofo (), or Mandarin Phonetic Symbols, also named Zhuyin (), is a Chinese transliteration system for Mandarin Chinese and other related languages and dialects. More commonly used in Taiwanese Mandarin, it may also be used to transcribe ...
''. The final ''-e'' is not written in ''de'', a common grammatical particle written with several different characters in print.
Tones
Tone is marked sparingly.
Punctuation
Chinese Braille punctuation approximates the form of international braille punctuation, but several spread the corresponding dots across two cells rather than one. For example, the period is , which is the same pattern as the international single-cell norm of .
Numbers
A braille cell ⠼ called ''number sign'' () is needed when representing numbers.
Examples:
: 0, 1, 2, … 9,
: 10, 11, 12, … 19, … 29, … 99,
: 100, 256, 1024, 1048576.
Rules
*Spaces are added between words, rather than between syllables.
*Tone is marked when needed. It comes after the final.
*As in
zhuyin
Bopomofo (), or Mandarin Phonetic Symbols, also named Zhuyin (), is a Chinese transliteration system for Mandarin Chinese and other related languages and dialects. More commonly used in Taiwanese Mandarin, it may also be used to transcribe ...
, the finals of the syllables ''zi, ci, si, zhi, chi, shi, ri'' are not marked.
Two examples, the first with full tone marking, the second with tone for disambiguation only:
:
:⠱⠂⠛⠩⠁⠀⠃⠥⠆⠀⠵⠖⠄⠀⠇⠢⠰⠂
:
:
:⠉⠖⠄⠙⠊⠆⠀⠱⠦⠀⠙⠀⠓⠿⠁⠀⠱⠆⠀⠋⠼⠀⠟⠺⠅⠪⠀⠙⠐⠆
:
Ambiguity
Chinese Braille has the same low level of ambiguity that pinyin does. In practice, tone is omitted 95% of the time, which leads to a space saving of a third. Tone is also omitted in
pinyin military telegraphy, and causes little confusion in context.
The initial pairs ''g/j'', ''k/q'', ''h/x'' are distinguished by the final: initials ''j, q, x'' are followed by the vowels ''i'' or ''ü'', while the initials ''g, k, h'' are followed by other vowels. This reflects the historical derivation of ''j, q, x'' from ''g, k, h'' before ''i'' and ''ü'', and parallels the dual pronunciations of ''c'' and ''g'' in
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
and
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
. In pinyin, the redundancy is resolved in the other direction, with the diaeresis omitted from ''ü'' after ''j, q, x''. Thus braille is equivalent to pinyin ''ju'':
: ''gu'',
: ''ju''.
Usage
The China Library for the Blind () in Beijing has several thousand volumes, mostly published by the China Braille Press (). The
National Taiwan Library
The National Taiwan Library () is a library in Zhonghe District, New Taipei, Taiwan. It is the oldest public library in Taiwan. Founded in 1914, the library is home to a large collection of documents concerning the history, culture, politics an ...
has a Braille room with a postal mail service and some electronic documents.
See also
*
Two-cell Chinese Braille
*
Taiwanese Braille
*
Cantonese Braille
*
Moon type is a simplification of the Latin alphabet for embossing. An adaptation for
Ningbo-reading blind people has been proposed.
Notes
References
*
Further reading
*
riginal from Columbia University; digitized August 18, 2009
External links
Omniglot: Braille for Chinese*
学点盲文
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*Braille at th
Dongli Disabled Persons' Federation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chinese Braille
French-ordered braille scripts
Transcription of Chinese