French Braille

Last updated
French Braille
DSC 4050-MR-Braille.jpg
Script type (non-linear)
Creator Louis Braille
Time period
1837
Print basis
French alphabet
LanguagesFrench
Related scripts
Parent systems
Child systems
English Braille
German Braille
Arabic Braille
etc., etc.
Unicode
U+2800 to U+283F

French Braille is the original braille alphabet, and the basis of almost all others. The alphabetic order of French has become the basis of the international braille convention, used by most braille alphabets around the world. However, only the 25 basic letters of the French alphabet plus w have become internationalized; the additional letters are largely restricted to French Braille and the alphabets of some neighboring European countries.

Contents

Letters

The final form of Braille's alphabet, according to Henri (1952). The decade diacritics are listed at left, and the supplementary letters are assigned to the appropriate decade at right. Characters are derived by combining the diacritic on the left with the basic letters at top. "(1)" indicates markers for musical and mathematical notation. Parentheses and quotation marks follow English Braille usage. The number sign is used to create several arithmetical symbols which are no longer in use, or that continue in Antoine notation. Final braille.png
The final form of Braille's alphabet, according to Henri (1952). The decade diacritics are listed at left, and the supplementary letters are assigned to the appropriate decade at right. Characters are derived by combining the diacritic on the left with the basic letters at top. "(1)" indicates markers for musical and mathematical notation. Parentheses and quotation marks follow English Braille usage. The number sign is used to create several arithmetical symbols which are no longer in use, or that continue in Antoine notation.
The original French Braille alphabet, according to Loomis (1942). Most accented letters of the 1829 version have been replaced with digraphs, but these are not used today. Original French Braille.jpg
The original French Braille alphabet, according to Loomis (1942). Most accented letters of the 1829 version have been replaced with digraphs, but these are not used today.

In numerical order by decade, the letters are:

Braille A1.svg
a, 1
Braille B2.svg
b, 2
Braille C3.svg
c, 3
Braille D4.svg
d, 4
Braille E5.svg
e, 5
Braille F6.svg
f, 6
Braille G7.svg
g, 7
Braille H8.svg
h, 8
Braille I9.svg
i, 9
Braille J0.svg
j, 0
Braille K.svg
k
Braille L.svg
l
Braille M.svg
m
Braille N.svg
n
Braille O.svg
o
Braille P.svg
p
Braille Q.svg
q
Braille R.svg
r
Braille S.svg
s
Braille T.svg
t
Braille U.svg
u
Braille V.svg
v
Braille X.svg
x
Braille Y.svg
y
Braille Z.svg
z
Braille AND.svg
ç
Braille E.svg
é
Braille A.svg
à
Braille E.svg
è
Braille U.svg
ù
Braille A.svg
â, 1
Braille E.svg
ê, 2
Braille SH.svg
î, 3
Braille O.svg
ô, 4
Braille U.svg
û, 5
Braille E.svg
ë, 6
Braille I.svg
ï, 7
Braille U.svg
ü, 8
Braille O.svg
œ, ö, 9
Braille W.svg
w

For the purposes of accommodating a foreign alphabet, the letters ì, ä, ò may be added:

Braille ST.svg
ì
Braille A.svg
æ, ä
Braille O.svg
ò

There are also numerous contractions and abbreviations in French braille.

Punctuation

Punctuation is as follows:

Braille Comma.svg
,
 
Braille Semicolon.svg
 ;
 
Braille Colon.svg
 :
÷
Braille Period.svg
.
/
Braille QuestionMark.svg
 ?
subscript
Braille ExclamationPoint.svg
 !
+
Braille Bracket.svg
"
=
Braille QuoteOpen.svg
(
 
Braille Asterisk.svg

×
Braille QuoteClose.svg
)
 
Braille Apostrophe.svg

. [lower-alpha 1]
Braille Hyphen.svg

Braille ST.svg
/
 
Braille A.svg
@ [lower-alpha 2]
 
Braille O.svg
* [lower-alpha 3]
 

The lower values are readings within numbers (after the Antoine number marker: see below).

Formatting and mode

Formatting and mode-changing marks are:

Braille DecimalPoint.svg
Capitals
 
Braille CursiveSign.svg
Emphasis
 
Braille QuestionMark.svg

(start)
Braille Asterisk.svg

(end)
Braille Accent.svg
Super-
script
Braille ContractionPrefix.svg
Symbol
 
Braille Currency.svg
Currency
 
Braille NumberSign.svg
Traditional
number
Braille CapitalSign.svg
Antoine
number

As in English Braille, the capital sign is doubled for all caps.

and are used to begin and end emphasis within a word.

The symbol marker combines with a following initial letter to produce the following:

§, &, ©, ®, , % ( , )

The currency marker combines with a following initial for:

¥, , $, £

It is also used in comic strips:

(speech bubble), (thought bubble)

Numbers

The traditional system of digits is to add the number sign in front of the letters of the first decade (a–j), with being 1 and being 0. This is the internationally recognized number system. However, in French Braille a new system, the Antoine braille digits, is used for mathematics and is recommended for all academic publications. This uses combined with the first nine letters of the fourth decade, from for 1 to for 9, with the preceding for 0. The period/decimal and fraction bar also change. The Antoine numbers are being promoted in France and Luxembourg, but are not much used with French Braille in Quebec.

French Braille digits
0123456789
Traditional Braille NumberSign.svg Braille J0.svg Braille A1.svg Braille B2.svg Braille C3.svg Braille D4.svg Braille E5.svg Braille F6.svg Braille G7.svg Braille H8.svg Braille I9.svg
Antoine Braille CapitalSign.svg Braille NumberSign.svg Braille A.svg Braille E.svg Braille SH.svg Braille O.svg Braille U.svg Braille E.svg Braille I.svg Braille U.svg Braille O.svg

See the punctuation section above for Antoine mathematical notation.

History

A page from an undated early braille textbook, showing both readings, with additional readings not included in Loomis. It is captioned Ecritare a l'usage des Aveugles. Procede de L. Braille. Professeur a l'institut N des J Aveugles. Early French Braille.png
A page from an undated early braille textbook, showing both readings, with additional readings not included in Loomis. It is captioned Écritare à l'usage des Aveugles. Procédé de L. Braille. Professeur à l'institut N des J Aveugles.

Readings have changed slightly since modern braille was first published in 1837. The greatest change has been various secondary readings which were added to the alphabet and then abandoned.

Historical readings in Loomis (1942)
dec. numeric sequence supp.
Braille NULL.svg
 
 
Braille A1.svg
a
1
Braille B2.svg
b
2
Braille C3.svg
c
3
Braille D4.svg
d
4
Braille E5.svg
e
5
Braille F6.svg
f
6
Braille G7.svg
g
7
Braille H8.svg
h
8
Braille I9.svg
i
9
Braille J0.svg
j
0
Braille Accent.svg

 
Braille Currency.svg

 
Braille Apostrophe.svg
'
 
Braille K.svg
k
 
Braille L.svg
l
 
Braille M.svg
m
 
Braille N.svg
n
 
Braille O.svg
o
 
Braille P.svg
p
 
Braille Q.svg
q
 
Braille R.svg
r
 
Braille S.svg
s
 
Braille T.svg
t
 
Braille ST.svg
ì
ian
Braille A.svg
æ
ien
Braille Hyphen.svg
-
 
Braille U.svg
u
 
Braille V.svg
v
 
Braille X.svg
x
 
Braille Y.svg
y
 
Braille Z.svg
z
 
Braille AND.svg
ç
oin
Braille E.svg
é
 
Braille A.svg
à
 
Braille E.svg
è
 
Braille U.svg
ù
ieu
Braille O.svg
ò
ion
Braille NumberSign.svg
(NUM)
 
Braille CapitalSign.svg

 
Braille A.svg
â
an
Braille E.svg
ê
in
Braille SH.svg
î
on
Braille O.svg
ô
un
Braille U.svg
û
eu
Braille E.svg
ë
ou
Braille I.svg
ï
oi
Braille U.svg
ü
ch
Braille O.svg
œ
gn
Braille W.svg
w
(i)ll
Braille DecimalPoint.svg
(CAP)
 
Braille CursiveSign.svg
(ITAL)
 
  Braille Comma.svg
,
 
Braille Semicolon.svg
;
 
Braille Colon.svg
:
 
Braille Period.svg
.
 
Braille QuestionMark.svg
?
 
Braille ExclamationPoint.svg
!
 
Braille Bracket.svg
()
 
Braille QuoteOpen.svg
«
 
Braille Asterisk.svg
*
 
Braille QuoteClose.svg
»
×
Braille ContractionPrefix.svg

 
Braille Correction.svg

 

Similar alphabets

In general, only the assignments of the basic 26 letters of the French alphabet are retained in other braille alphabets. For example, among the additional letters, in German Braille only ü and ö coincide with French Braille. However, there are several alphabets which are much more closely related. Italian Braille is identical to the French apart from doubling up French Braille ò to Italian ó and ò, since French has no ó. Indeed, a principal difference of these alphabets is the remapping of French vowels with a grave accent (à è ì ò ù) to an acute accent (á é í ó ú), as the French alphabet does not support acute accents apart from é. Spanish changes all five of these vowels, as well as taking ü. Portuguese Braille is also very similar to the French, though the shift of grave to acute accents necessitated a chain of other changes, such as circumflex to grave, and the Portuguese tildes were taken from French diaereses (Portuguese ã õ for French ä ö/œ). The continental Scandinavian languages took the extended French letters â (for å), ä/æ, and ö/ø. Vietnamese Braille is also quite similar, though it has added tone letters, and uses French z for d, which is pronounced like z.

Related alphabets
Braille: Braille AND.svg Braille E.svg Braille A.svg Braille E.svg Braille U.svg Braille A.svg Braille E.svg Braille SH.svg Braille O.svg Braille U.svg Braille E.svg Braille I.svg Braille U.svg Braille O.svg Braille W.svg Braille ST.svg Braille A.svg Braille O.svg
Frenchçéàèùâêîôûëïüœ/öwìæ/äò
Portuguese çéàèùâêíôúáïüõò/wìãó
Catalan çéàèúïüówíò
Spanish/Galician áéúñüwíó
Italian éàèùówìò
Luxembourgish (old)éëwä
Scandinavian [lower-alpha 4] åö/øwä/æ
Vietnamese [lower-alpha 5] [lower-alpha 5] âêôươ [lower-alpha 5] ă [lower-alpha 5]
Braille Patterns

Catalan Braille adds for print l·l , and Spanish Braille uses (French ï) for the non-French consonant ñ. Luxembourgish Braille has since switch to eight-point braille, adding a dot at point 8 for the three vowels with accents.

Punctuation and formatting are in general similar as well, though changes in French punctuation over time means that some languages use older French conventions. For example, French parentheses and quotation marks originally had the opposite values they do today, values which remain in English Braille. Other changes have accrued over time, and in some cases vary from country to country. For example, Italian Braille uses the old French quotation marks and asterisk , but also shifted the old French parentheses to brackets and innovated for parentheses; in addition, it uses point 3, , for both apostrophe and full stop / period.

A sample of Moon type in various languages including French. Moon-prayer.jpg
A sample of Moon type in various languages including French.

Moon type is a simplification of the Latin alphabet for embossing. An adaptation of French-reading blind people has been proposed.

Notes

  1. The space in numbers between thousands.
  2. Also marks the end of a verse.
  3. Used to mark a footnote or endnote.
  4. Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Vietnamese à è ì ò ù are written as a tone letter plus a e i o u.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diacritic</span> Modifier mark added to a letter

A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek διακριτικός, from διακρίνω. The word diacritic is a noun, though it is sometimes used in an attributive sense, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritics, such as the acute ⟨ó⟩, grave ⟨ò⟩, and circumflex ⟨ô⟩, are often called accents. Diacritics may appear above or below a letter or in some other position such as within the letter or between two letters.

The acute accent, ◌́, is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts. For the most commonly encountered uses of the accent in the Latin and Greek alphabets, precomposed characters are available.

The Danish and Norwegian alphabet is the set of symbols, forming a variant of the Latin alphabet, used for writing the Danish and Norwegian languages. It has consisted of the following 29 letters since 1917 (Norwegian) and 1948 (Danish):

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AZERTY</span> Keyboard layout used for French

AZERTY is a specific layout for the characters of the Latin alphabet on typewriter keys and computer keyboards. The layout takes its name from the first six letters to appear on the first row of alphabetical keys; that is,. Similar to the QWERTZ layout, it is modelled on the English QWERTY layout. It is used in France and Belgium, although each of these countries has its own national variation on the layout. Luxembourg and Switzerland use the Swiss QWERTZ keyboard. Most residents of Quebec, the mainly French-speaking province of Canada, use a QWERTY keyboard that has been adapted to the French language such as the Multilingual Standard keyboard CAN/CSA Z243.200-92 which is stipulated by the government of Quebec and the Government of Canada.

The grave accent is a diacritical mark used to varying degrees in French, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan and many other western European languages as well as for a few unusual uses in English. It is also used in other languages using the Latin alphabet, such as Mohawk and Yoruba, and with non-Latin writing systems such as the Greek and Cyrillic alphabets and the Bopomofo or Zhuyin Fuhao semi-syllabary. It has no single meaning, but can indicate pitch, stress, or other features.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zaghawa alphabet</span> Indigenous alphabet proposed for the Zaghawa

The Zaghawa or Beria alphabet, Beria Giray Erfe, is an indigenous alphabetic script proposed for the Zaghawa language of Darfur and Chad.

Greek Braille is the braille alphabet of the Greek language. It is based on international braille conventions, generally corresponding to Latin transliteration. In Greek, it is known as Κώδικας Μπράιγ Kódikas Bráig "Braille Code".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esperanto Braille</span> Braille alphabet of the Esperanto language

The Esperanto language has a dedicated braille alphabet. One Esperanto braille magazine, Esperanta Ligilo, has been published since 1904, and another, Aŭroro, since 1920.

The braille alphabet used to write Hungarian is based on the international norm for the 27 basic letters of the Latin script. However, the letters for q and z have been replaced, to increase the symmetry of the accented letters of the Hungarian alphabet, which are largely innovative to Hungarian braille.

Luxembourgish Braille is the braille alphabet of the Luxembourgish language. It is very close to French Braille, but uses eight-dot cells, with the extra pair of dots at the bottom of each cell to indicate capitalization and accent marks. It is the only eight-dot alphabet listed in UNESCO (2013). Children start off with the older six-dot script, then switch to eight-dot cells when they start primary school and learn the numbers.

Italian Braille is the braille alphabet of the Italian language, both in Italy and in Switzerland. It is very close to French Braille, with some differences in punctuation.

Scandinavian Braille is a braille alphabet used, with differences in orthography and punctuation, for the languages of the mainland Nordic countries: Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish. In a generally reduced form it is used for Greenlandic.

EPortuguese Braille is the braille alphabet of the Portuguese language, both in Portugal and in Brazil. It is very close to French Braille, with slight modification of the accented letters and some differences in punctuation.

Turkish Braille is the braille alphabet of the Turkish language.

Irish Braille is the braille alphabet of the Irish language. It is augmented by specifically Irish letters for vowels with acute accents in print:

IPA Braille is the modern standard Braille encoding of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), as recognized by the International Council on English Braille.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spanish Braille</span> Braille alphabet of Spanish and Galician

Spanish Braille is the braille alphabet of Spanish and Galician. It is very close to French Braille, with the addition of a letter for ñ, slight modification of the accented letters and some differences in punctuation. Further conventions have been unified by the Latin American Blind Union, but differences with Spain remain.

Catalan Braille is the braille alphabet of the Catalan language.

Navajo Braille is the braille alphabet of the Navajo language. It uses a subset of the letters of Unified English Braille, along with the punctuation and formatting of that standard. There are no contractions.

References

    Sources

    • Code braille français uniformisé pour la transcription des textes imprimés (CBFU) (PDF) (2nd ed.). 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-10-04.
    • Commission Evolution du Braille Français (September 1999). Code de transcription en braille des textes imprimes (PDF) (2nd ed.). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-10-28.
    • Loomis, M. S. (1942). The Braille Reference Book.
    • Henri, Pierre (1952). La vie et l'œvre de Louis Braille. Paris: PUF-GIAA.