Mainland Chinese Braille is a braille script for Standard Chinese used in China.[1] Consonants and basic finals conform to international braille, but additional finals form a semi-syllabary, as in bopomofo. Each syllable is written with up to three Braille cells, representing the initial, final, and tone, respectively. In practice tone is generally omitted as it is in pinyin.
| Chinese Braille ⠓⠩⠆⠓⠡⠂⠀⠍⠦⠂⠒⠂ | |
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| Script type | |
Print basis | Pinyin, bopomofo |
| Languages | Standard Chinese |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Night writing
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| Mainland Chinese Braille | |||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 現行盲文 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 现行盲文 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | Current Braille | ||||||
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Braille charts edit
Traditional Chinese Braille is as follows:[2][3]
Initials edit
Chinese Braille initials generally follow the pinyin 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), ⠱ (a common pronunciation in international braille), and ⠌. R is assigned to ⠚, reflecting the old Wade-Giles transcription of ⟨j⟩. (⠗ is used for the final er, the pronunciation of the name of that letter in English Braille.)
| Pinyin | b | p | m | f | d | t | n | l | g/j | k/q | h/x | zh | ch | sh | r | z | c | s |
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| Bopomofo | ㄅ | ㄆ | ㄇ | ㄈ | ㄉ | ㄊ | ㄋ | ㄌ | ㄍ ㄐ |
ㄎ ㄑ |
ㄏ ㄒ |
ㄓ | ㄔ | ㄕ | ㄖ | ㄗ | ㄘ | ㄙ |
| Braille |  |
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Finals edit
The finals approximate international braille 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. ⠯ 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 bopomofo. The final -e is not written in ⠙ de, a common grammatical particle written with several different characters in print.[4]
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Tones edit
Tone is marked sparingly.
| Tone | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | neutral |
| Pinyin | ¯ | ´ | ˇ | ` | (none) |
| Zhuyin | (none) | ˊ | ˇ | ˋ | ˙ |
| Braille |  |
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(none) |
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Punctuation edit
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 ⠲.
| 。 | ， | 、 | ？ | ！ | ： | ； | - | — | … | · | （ | ） | ［ and ］ | 《 | 》 | “ | ” | ‘ | ’ | |
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| French equivalent | ⠲ | ⠂ | ⠢ | ⠖ | ⠒ | ⠆ | ⠤ | ⠄⠄⠄ | ⠀ | ⠦ | ⠴ | ⠶ |
Numbers edit
A braille cell ⠼ called number sign (simplified Chinese: 数号; traditional Chinese: 數號; pinyin: shùhào) is needed when representing numbers.
| Number | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 |
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Examples:
- ⠼⠚ 0, ⠼⠁ 1, ⠼⠃ 2, … ⠼⠊ 9,
- ⠼⠁⠚ 10, ⠼⠁⠁ 11, ⠼⠁⠃ 12, … ⠼⠁⠊ 19, … ⠼⠃⠊ 29, … ⠼⠊⠊ 99,
- ⠼⠁⠚⠚ 100, ⠼⠃⠑⠋ 256, ⠼⠁⠚⠃⠙ 1024, ⠼⠁⠚⠙⠓⠑⠛⠋ 1048576.
Rules edit
- Spaces are added between words, rather than between syllables.
- Tone is marked when needed. It comes after the final.
- As in bopomofo, 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:
- 时间不早了！ (時間不早了！)
- ⠱⠂⠛⠩⠁⠀⠃⠥⠆⠀⠵⠖⠄⠀⠇⠢⠰⠂
⠱⠂⠛⠩⠁⠀ ⠃⠥⠆⠀ ⠵⠖⠄⠀ ⠇⠢⠰⠂ 时间 不 早 了！ Shíjiān bù zǎo le! time not early PFV
- 草地上的花是风吹开的。
- ⠉⠖⠄⠙⠊⠆⠀⠱⠦⠀⠙⠀⠓⠿⠁⠀⠱⠆⠀⠋⠼⠀⠟⠺⠅⠪⠀⠙⠐⠆
⠉⠖⠄⠙⠊⠆⠀ ⠱⠦⠀ ⠙⠀ ⠓⠿⠁⠀ ⠱⠆⠀ ⠋⠼⠀ ⠟⠺⠅⠪⠀ ⠙⠐⠆ 草地 上 的 花 是 风 吹开 的。 cǎodì shang de huā shi feng chuikai de. grass above which flower is wind [a] by
Ambiguity edit
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,[5] and parallels the dual pronunciations of c and g in Spanish and Italian. In pinyin, the redundancy is resolved in the other direction, with the diaeresis omitted from ü after j, q, x. Thus braille ⟨gü⟩ is equivalent to pinyin ju:
- ⠛⠥ gu,
- ⠛⠬ ju.
Usage edit
The China Library for the Blind (Chinese: 中国盲文图书馆) in Beijing has several thousand volumes, mostly published by the China Braille Press (Chinese: 中国盲文出版社).[6] The National Taiwan Library has a Braille room with a postal mail service and some electronic documents.[7][irrelevant citation]
See also edit
- 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 edit
- ^ The meaning of this metaphorical sentence should be “Flowers on the grasslands bloom because of the blowing wind.”
References edit
- Grotz, J. (Aug 1991). "The necessary reform of Chinese Braille writing". Rehabilitation (Stuttgart). 30 (3): 153–5. PMID 1947424.
- ^ Pace Unesco (2013), a different alphabet is used in Taiwan, Taiwanese Braille.
- ^ Vivian Aldridge, 2000 [2002] How is Chinese written in braille? Archived 2006-10-05 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ GB/T 15720-2008, 中国盲文 (Chinese Braille)
- ^ UNESCO (2013) World Braille Usage Archived 2014-09-08 at the Wayback Machine, 3rd edition.
(⠙ is mistakenly said to be a contraction of di in the charts, but is confirmed as de in the sample.) - ^ They also derive from z, c, s before i or ü, and this is the identity reflected in Taiwanese braille.
- ^ Fruchterman, Jim (2008-10-08). "Beneblog: Technology Meets Society: China Braille Press". Benetech.blogspot.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
- ^ "Delivery of Library Materials". Southernlibrarianship.icaap.org. Archived from the original on 2012-04-01. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
Further reading edit
- Constance Frederica Gordon Cumming (1892). Work for the blind in China. Printed by Gilbert & Rivington, Limited, St. John's House, Clerkenwell, London E.C.: Gilbert & Rivington, Ld. p. 79. Retrieved April 23, 2012. [Original from Columbia University; digitized August 18, 2009]
External links edit
- Omniglot: Braille for Chinese
- 学点盲文
- Braille at the Dongli Disabled Persons' Federation Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine