Taiwanese Braille

Taiwanese Braille ⠅⠒⠂⠳⠈⠀⠙⠞⠈⠓⠱⠐
Type	Semisyllabary
Languages	Standard Mandarin
Parent systems	Night writing Braille Taiwanese Braille
Print basis	Zhuyin

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, the majority of consonants have been reassigned;^[2] also, like Chinese Braille, Taiwanese Braille is a semi-syllabary.

An example is,

國

語

點

字

記

號

ㄍ

ㄨㄛ

ˊ

ㄩ

ˇ

ㄉ

ㄧㄢ

ˇ

ㄗ

ˋ

ㄐ

ㄧ

ˋ

ㄏ

ㄠ

ˋ

guó

yǔ

diǎn

zì

jì

hào

Charts

Initials

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

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
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

Tone:	1	2	3	4	0
Zhuyin	na	ˊ	ˇ	ˋ	˙
Pinyin	ˉ	ˊ	ˇ	ˋ	na
Braille	⠄	⠂	⠈	⠐	⠁

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

Punctuations

Punctuation^[5]

Print	。 ・	，	；	、	？	！	：
Braille	⠤	⠆	⠰	⠠	⠕	⠇	⠒⠒

Print	＿＿	﹏﹏	……	—	—— ——	※	◎
Braille	⠰⠰	⠠⠤	⠐⠐⠐	⠐⠂	⠐⠂ ⠐⠂	⠈⠼	⠪⠕

Print	「 」	『 』	（ ）	〔 〕	｛ ｝
Braille	⠰⠤ ⠤⠆	⠦⠦ ⠴⠴	⠪ ⠕	⠯ ⠽	⠦ ⠴

References

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. http://www.languagehat.com/archives/003051.php
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

• 國語點字自學手冊, National Taiwan Library

  (a copy here)