Japanese Braille
Encyclopedia
Japanese braille is a braille code for writing the Japanese language
. It is based on the original braille
system. In Japanese it is known as , literally "dot characters". Below is a basic chart of Japanese braille with the Japanese hiragana
character followed by the standard roman character reading above each braille character.
Japanese braille is a vowel-based abugida
. That is, the glyphs are syllabic, but unlike kana
contain separate symbols for consonants and vowels, and the vowels take primacy. The vowels are written in the upper left corner (points 1, 2, 4) and may be used alone. The consonants are written in the lower right corner (points 3, 5, 6) and cannot occur alone. (An isolated t would be read as wo, for example. The only exception is m, which when written alone is the syllabic nasal, which may perhaps be a design feature rather than coincidence, as the syllabic nasal derives from historic mu.) However, the semivowel
y is indicated by point 4, one of the vowel points, and the vowel combination is dropped to the bottom of the block. When this point is written in isolation, it indicates that the following syllable has a medial y, as in mya. For syllables beginning with w the vowel is also dropped, but no consonant is written. (Except for the syllable wa, historic w is silent in modern Japanese.)
called dakuten
to the kana, as in ぎ gi. Similarly, p is derived from h by adding a small circle, handakuten. Two kana are fused into a single syllable by writing the second small, as in きゃ kya; this is called yōon
.
In Japanese braille, the signs for these are prefixes. That is, the order is dakuten ki for ぎ gi. When more than one occurs in a single syllable, they are combined in a single prefix block, as the yōon-dakuten used for ぎゃ gya.
The yōon prefix uses the point that represents y in the blocks ya, yu, yo. When placed before ka, ku, ke, ko, it produces kya, kyu, kye, kyo. Likewise, the yōon-tenten prefix before ka, ku, ke, ko creates gya, gyu, gye, gyo. Similarly for the other consonants. The syllable ye is written yōon plus e. (Note that kye, gye, and ye are not found in native Japanese words.) Yōon and yōon-dakuten are also added to chi to represent the sounds ti, di found in foreign borrowings; and similarly yōon-handakuten and yōon-dakuten-handakuten (all three points on the right side of the block) are added to tsu to write tu, du. This differs from the system used in kana, where the base syllables are te and to respectively, and where handakuten is only used to represent p.
There is a second yōon-like prefix for medial w. When combined with ka, it produces the obsolete syllable kwa. It may also be fused with the voicing prefix for gwa. For foreign borrowings, it may be combined with the vowels i, e, o for wi, we, wo (note that in the original Japanese kana for wi, we, wo the w is now silent), with ha, hi, he, ho for fa, fi, fe, fo and va, vi, ve, vo (vu is written dakuten u), and with ta, chi, tsu, te, to for tsa, tsi, tu, tse, tso and (with dakuten) du.
There are two other kana. One, called sokuon
, is a small kana tsu, っ; it is used to indicate that the following syllable is geminate, or (in interjection
s) as a glottal stop
. The other is a dash, ー, called a chōon
used only in katakana to indicate a long vowel. This also looks like a dash in braille.
The placement of these blocks mirrors the equivalent kana: the sokuon indicates that the following consonant is geminant, whereas the chōon indicates that the preceding vowel is long.
.
There are several additional punctuation marks, including one to indicate that the following characters are English words and not just in the Latin alphabet.
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
. It is based on the original braille
Braille
The Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...
system. In Japanese it is known as , literally "dot characters". Below is a basic chart of Japanese braille with the Japanese hiragana
Hiragana
is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...
character followed by the standard roman character reading above each braille character.
Japanese braille is a vowel-based abugida
Abugida
An abugida , also called an alphasyllabary, is a segmental writing system in which consonant–vowel sequences are written as a unit: each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel notation is obligatory but secondary...
. That is, the glyphs are syllabic, but unlike kana
Kana
Kana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, as opposed to the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji and the Roman alphabet known as rōmaji...
contain separate symbols for consonants and vowels, and the vowels take primacy. The vowels are written in the upper left corner (points 1, 2, 4) and may be used alone. The consonants are written in the lower right corner (points 3, 5, 6) and cannot occur alone. (An isolated t would be read as wo, for example. The only exception is m, which when written alone is the syllabic nasal, which may perhaps be a design feature rather than coincidence, as the syllabic nasal derives from historic mu.) However, the semivowel
Semivowel
In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:...
y is indicated by point 4, one of the vowel points, and the vowel combination is dropped to the bottom of the block. When this point is written in isolation, it indicates that the following syllable has a medial y, as in mya. For syllables beginning with w the vowel is also dropped, but no consonant is written. (Except for the syllable wa, historic w is silent in modern Japanese.)
Main chart
For illustration, the vowel points are written in black, and the consonant points in green. There is no such distinction in braille as it is actually used.| あ a | い i | う u | え e | お o | ||
| ● |
● ● |
● ● |
● ● ● |
● ● |
||
| k | か ka | き ki | く ku | け ke | こ ko | |
| ● ● |
● ● ● |
● ● ● |
● ● ● ● |
● ● ● |
||
| s | さ sa | し shi | す su | せ se | そ so | |
| ● ● ● |
● ● ● ● |
● ● ● ● |
● ● ● ● ● |
● ● ● ● |
||
| t | た ta | ち chi | つ tsu | て te | と to | |
| ● ● ● |
● ● ● ● |
● ● ● ● |
● ● ● ● ● |
● ● ● ● |
||
| n | な na | に ni | ぬ nu | ね ne | の no | |
| ● ● |
● ● ● |
● ● ● |
● ● ● ● |
● ● ● |
||
| h | は ha | ひ hi | ふ fu | へ he | ほ ho | |
| ● ● ● |
● ● ● ● |
● ● ● ● |
● ● ● ● ● |
● ● ● ● |
||
| m | ま ma | み mi | む mu | め me | も mo | ん n |
| ● ● ● ● |
● ● ● ● ● |
● ● ● ● ● |
● ● ● ● ● ● |
● ● ● ● ● |
● ● ● |
|
| y | や ya | ゆ yu | よ yo | -y- | ||
| ● ● |
● ● ● |
● ● ● |
● |
|||
| r | ら ra | り ri | る ru | れ re | ろ ro | |
| ● ● |
● ● ● |
● ● ● |
● ● ● ● |
● ● ● |
||
| w | わ wa | ゐ i | ゑ e | を wo | -w- | |
| ● |
● ● |
● ● ● |
● ● |
● ● |
Other symbols
In kana, the voiced consonants g, z, d, b are derived from the voiceless consonants k, s, t, h by adding a diacriticDiacritic
A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute and grave are often called accents...
called dakuten
Dakuten
, colloquially ten-ten , is a diacritic sign most often used in the Japanese kana syllabaries to indicate that the consonant of a syllable should be pronounced voiced. Handakuten , colloquially maru , is a diacritic used with the kana for syllables starting with h to indicate that they should...
to the kana, as in ぎ gi. Similarly, p is derived from h by adding a small circle, handakuten. Two kana are fused into a single syllable by writing the second small, as in きゃ kya; this is called yōon
Yoon
is a feature of the Japanese language in which a mora is formed with an added sound.Yōon are represented in hiragana using a kana ending in i, such as き , plus a smaller-than-usual version of one of the three y kana, ya, yu or yo. For example kyō, "today", is written きょう, using a small version of...
.
| dakuten (voice) |
handakuten (p-) |
yōon (-y-) |
yōon + dakuten |
yōon + handakuten |
| ● |
● |
● |
● ● |
● ● |
In Japanese braille, the signs for these are prefixes. That is, the order is dakuten ki for ぎ gi. When more than one occurs in a single syllable, they are combined in a single prefix block, as the yōon-dakuten used for ぎゃ gya.
The yōon prefix uses the point that represents y in the blocks ya, yu, yo. When placed before ka, ku, ke, ko, it produces kya, kyu, kye, kyo. Likewise, the yōon-tenten prefix before ka, ku, ke, ko creates gya, gyu, gye, gyo. Similarly for the other consonants. The syllable ye is written yōon plus e. (Note that kye, gye, and ye are not found in native Japanese words.) Yōon and yōon-dakuten are also added to chi to represent the sounds ti, di found in foreign borrowings; and similarly yōon-handakuten and yōon-dakuten-handakuten (all three points on the right side of the block) are added to tsu to write tu, du. This differs from the system used in kana, where the base syllables are te and to respectively, and where handakuten is only used to represent p.
There is a second yōon-like prefix for medial w. When combined with ka, it produces the obsolete syllable kwa. It may also be fused with the voicing prefix for gwa. For foreign borrowings, it may be combined with the vowels i, e, o for wi, we, wo (note that in the original Japanese kana for wi, we, wo the w is now silent), with ha, hi, he, ho for fa, fi, fe, fo and va, vi, ve, vo (vu is written dakuten u), and with ta, chi, tsu, te, to for tsa, tsi, tu, tse, tso and (with dakuten) du.
There are two other kana. One, called sokuon
Sokuon
The is a Japanese symbol consisting of a small hiragana or katakana tsu. In less formal language it is called or , meaning "little tsu". Compare to a full-sized tsu:The sokuon is used for various purposes...
, is a small kana tsu, っ; it is used to indicate that the following syllable is geminate, or (in interjection
Interjection
In grammar, an interjection or exclamation is a word used to express an emotion or sentiment on the part of the speaker . Filled pauses such as uh, er, um are also considered interjections...
s) as a glottal stop
Glottal stop
The glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English, the feature is represented, for example, by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those using a preservative pronunciation of...
. The other is a dash, ー, called a chōon
Choon
The , also known as ', ', or Katakana-Hiragana Prolonged Sound Mark by the Unicode Consortium, is a Japanese symbol which indicates a chōon, or a long vowel of two morae in length. Its form is a horizontal or vertical line in the center of the text with the width of one kanji or kana character...
used only in katakana to indicate a long vowel. This also looks like a dash in braille.
| sokuon | chōon |
| ● |
● ● |
The placement of these blocks mirrors the equivalent kana: the sokuon indicates that the following consonant is geminant, whereas the chōon indicates that the preceding vowel is long.
Punctuation
Besides the punctuation of Japanese, braille also has symbols to indicate that the following characters are Hindu numerals or the Latin alphabetLatin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
.
| 。 | 、 | num. | Latin | hyph. |
| ● ● ● |
● ● |
● ● ● ● |
● ● |
● ● |
There are several additional punctuation marks, including one to indicate that the following characters are English words and not just in the Latin alphabet.
See also
- Korean brailleKorean BrailleKorean braille is a braille code used for writing the Korean language. It is not graphically related to other braille systems found around the world. Instead, it reflects the patterns found in hangul. It is a combination of initial consonants, vowels, and final consonants...
- Chinese brailleChinese brailleChinese braille is a braille system for the Chinese language, especially in People's Republic of China. It is different from other braille systems, although a few of the patterns have been borrowed from alphabetical Braille as can be seen in the tables below....
- Vietnamese brailleVietnamese brailleVietnamese Braille is a Braille system adapted to the Vietnamese alphabet. Basic Latin letters use the same Braille cells as English; however, the system includes additional characters for special letters and tones...
- Hebrew brailleHebrew brailleHebrew Braille is the system of Braille used by Hebrew readers and speakers. The International Hebrew Braille Code in wide usage throughout the world was devised in the 1930s and completed in 1944. It is based on the standard Braille system, with additional letters devised to accommodate...