Two-cell Chinese Braille
Two-cell Chinese Braille was designed in the 1970s and is used in parallel with traditional Chinese Braille in China.
| Two-cell Chinese Braille | |
|---|---|
| Script type | with characteristics of an abugida |
| Languages | Standard Mandarin |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Braille
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| Two-cell Chinese Braille | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 漢語雙拼盲文 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 汉语双拼盲文 | ||||||
| |||||||
Each syllable is rendered with two braille characters. The first combines the initial and medial; the second the rime and tone. The base letters represent the initial and rime; these are modified with diacritics for the medial and tone. Thus each of the braille cells has aspects of an abugida.[2][3]
Braille charts
Onsets
The first cell indicates the initial, generally in dots 1 to 4, and the medial in dots 5 and 6. This design exploits restrictions on co-occurrence of initials and medials to fit all the allowable combinations in a single cell.
The medial -i- is represented by dot 5 (⠐), the medial -u- by dot 6 (⠠), and the medial -ü- by both dots 5 and 6 (⠰). The z c s series is derived from zh ch sh as if they contained a -i- medial; these two series are not distinguished in many Mandarin dialects. As in traditional Chinese Braille, k g h and q j x are unified, as they never contrast.
A null/zero initial (a vowel-initial syllable) is indicated with the null consonant ⠾.
| – | b- | p- | m- | f- | d- | t- | n- | l- | g- | k- | h- | zh- | ch- | sh- | r- |
| y- | bi- | pi- | mi- | di- | ti- | ni- | li- | ji- | qi- | xi- | z- | c- | s- | ||
| w- | du- | tu- | nu- | lu- | gu- | ku- | hu- | zhu- | chu- | shu- | ru- | ||||
| yu- | nü- | lü- | ju- | qu- | xu- | zu- | cu- | su- | |||||||
At least one letter in each place of articulation comes from international use (⠖ f, ⠞ ti, ⠇ l, ⠅ k, ⠓ xi, ⠉ zh), with at least some of the others derived from these (cf. ⠅⠃⠁ k h g and ⠍⠋⠉ ch sh zh).
Rimes
The second cell represents the rime, generally in the top half of the cell, and the tone, generally in dots 3 and 6.
Tone 1 (mā) is indicated by dot 3 (⠄), tone 2 (má) by dot 6 (⠠), and tone 3 (mǎ) by dots 3 and 6 (⠤). (In rime -ei, which already contains a dot 3, the dot 3 for tones 1 and 3 is replaced by dot 5 (⠐ or ⠰).) Tone 4 (mà) and neutral/toneless syllables use the basic rime.
A null/zero rime (a syllable ending with medial i u ü) is written with ⠃.
| -ì, -ù, -ǜ | -à | -è, -ò | -ài | -èi | -ào | -òu | -àn | -èn | -àng | -èng | èr |
| -ī, -ū, -ǖ | -ā | -ē, -ō | -āi | -ēi | -āo | -ōu | -ān | -ēn | -āng | -ēng | ēr |
| -í, -ú, -ǘ | -á | -é, -ó | -ái | -éi | -áo | -óu | -án | -én | -áng | -éng | ér |
| -ǐ, -ǔ, -ǚ | -ǎ | -ě, -ǒ | -ǎi | -ěi | -ǎo | -ǒu | -ǎn | -ěn | -ǎng | -ěng | ěr |
- ⠃ is the 'zero' rime transcribed as -i after z c s zh ch sh r in pinyin; here it's also used to carry the tone for syllables where the medial is the rime, such as gu or mi. After b p m f, it is equivalent to pinyin -u.
- ⠊ is transcribed in pinyin as o after b p m f w and the medial u; otherwise it's e.
The rime er is written as if it were *ra; this is possible because *ra is not a possible syllable in Mandarin. At the end of a word, ⠔ -r is erhua, as in ⠣⠞⠔ huār (花儿). Within a word, hyphenate erhua (⠔⠤) to avoid confusion with an initial r- in the following syllable.
The exclamation ê is ⠐⠊,[dubious ] yo is ⠈⠊, and o is ⠠⠊, with appropriate modification for tone.
Combining onset and rime
Combinations of onset and rime follow the conventions of zhuyin, and are therefore not obvious from pinyin transcription.
- for pinyin -in, use medial -i- with rime -en; for -ing, use -i- and -eng
- for -un (the equivalent of wen), use -u- and -en; for -ong (the equivalent of weng), use -u- and -eng
- for -iong (the equivalent of yueng, though written yong in pinyin), use -ü- and -eng
Several syllables are palindromes, with the onset and rime written the same:
- ⠾⠾ ǎ, ⠊⠊ bò, ⠪⠪ mó, ⠮⠮ tuǒ, ⠯⠯ nuǎn, ⠗⠗ liāo, ⠧⠧ lǔ, ⠑⠑ jìng, ⠕⠕ qīng, ⠥⠥ kǔn, ⠓⠓ xiào, ⠣⠣ hú, ⠉⠉ zhòu, ⠙⠙ zàng, ⠍⠍ chōu, ⠝⠝ cāng, ⠋⠋ shàn, ⠛⠛ sài
A toneless or 4th-tone zero rime is omitted at the end of a polysyllabic word. (Words ending in ⠔⠃ rì (日) 'day' are an exception, to prevent confusion with the erhua suffix.) When context makes it unambiguous, the zero rime in other tones may also be omitted.
Sandhi is not rendered; rather, the inherent tone of a morpheme is written.
The following are rendered as toneless syllables:
- Interjections and grammatical particles such as 啊 a, 呀 ya, 哇 wa, 吧 ba, 啦 la, 呢 ne, 吗 ma.
- The verbal aspectual suffixes 了 -le, 着 -zhe, 过 -guo
- The nominal suffixes 子 -zi and 头 -tou.
Common abbreviations
- Suffixes
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- Words
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Homophones
Some common homophones are distinguished by prefixing with a dot 4 ⠈ or 5 ⠐, or by dropping the rime:
- tā: 他 (he) ⠎⠞, 她 (she) ⠈⠎⠞, 它 (it) ⠐⠎⠞
- zài: 在 (at) ⠙⠛, 再 (again) ⠈⠙⠛
- shì: 是 (to be) ⠋, 事 (thing) ⠋⠃
- 是 as a suffix is ⠖, like an initial f-
The three grammatical uses of non-tonic de are irregular:
- de: attributive 的 ⠌, adverbial 地 ⠜, complement 得 ⠌⠔[dubious ]
Often printed Chinese can be contracted, compared to speech, as unambiguous where a phonetic rendition such as braille would be ambiguous; in such cases, the sign ⟨⠘⟩ may be used to indicate the omitted syllables. For example, in the clause 露从今夜白 Lù cóng jīnyè bái, 露 lù means 'dew' (colloquial 露水 lùshuǐ). However, there are several other words transcribed ⠧⠃ lù in braille. To clarify, the –水 element of the colloquial word can be added with the ⟨⠘⟩ prefix:
- ⠧⠃⠘⠫⠼⠀⠽⠱⠀⠑⠅⠒⠊⠀⠊⠻
- Lù(shuǐ) cóng jīnyè bái
- 露（水） 从 今夜 白
In other cases a synonym may be provided; here the prefix is ⟨⠸⟩.[clarification needed] For example, in print the meaning of
- 两岸猿声啼
- Liǎng'àn yuán shēng tí
- (from both sides, the voices of monkeys cried out)
is clear, but in a phonetic script 猿 yuán 'monkey' and 啼 tí 'cry' can be obscure. The first can be clarified as 猿猴 yuánhóu 'primate' and the second with the parenthetical 叫 jiào 'call':
- ⠗⠽⠾⠋⠘⠀⠲⠫⠘⠃⠩⠋⠕⠀⠞⠣⠸⠑⠓
- Liǎng'àn yuán(hóu) shēng tí (jiào)
- 两岸 猿（猴） 声 啼 （叫）
When longer parenthetical explanations are provided, the sign ⟨⠸⟩ is repeated before each word (not each syllable).
Numbers
Numbers are the same as in other braille alphabets. Use the number sign ⠼ followed by ⠁ 1, ⠃ 2, ⠉ 3, ⠙ 4, ⠑ 5, ⠋ 6, ⠛ 7, ⠓ 8, ⠊ 9, ⠚ 0.
Notes are indicated as ⠔⠼⠁, ⠔⠼⠃, etc., sections as ⠬⠼⠉ etc.
Formatting
emphasis ⠠ proper name ⠨ foreign script ⠰ number ⠼
⠼ is also used for reduplication rather than repeating a syllable or word. When attached to a word, it repeats a syllable; standing alone, it repeats a word:
- ⠳⠧⠼⠬⠎⠼
- xǔxǔ-duōduō
- 许许多多
- ⠓⠙⠕⠫⠐⠀⠼⠐⠀⠼⠰⠂
- Xiàngqián, xiàngqián, xiàngqián!
- 向前， 向前， 向前！
Punctuation
Chinese braille punctuation is based on that of French Braille, but they are generally split between two cells. This gives them the 'full-width' feel of print Chinese, as well as avoiding confusion with letters.
clausal comma ⟨，⟩ ⠐ phrasal comma ⟨、⟩ ⠠ full stop / period ⟨。⟩ ⠐⠆ question mark ⟨？⟩ ⠐⠄ exclamation mark ⟨！⟩ ⠰⠂ wave dash ⟨〜⟩ ⠤ interpunct ⟨·⟩ ⠐⠂ colon ⟨：⟩ ⠠⠄ semicolon ⟨；⟩ ⠰ ellipsis ⟨……⟩ ⠐⠐⠐
Outer Inner quotation marks 「 」 ⠰⠄⠀⠠⠆ ⠰⠢⠀⠔⠆ title quotes 《 》 ⠐⠤⠀⠤⠂ ⠐⠄⠀⠠⠂ parentheses （ ） ⠰⠤⠀⠤⠆ ⠰⠦⠀⠴⠆
square brackets 〔 〕 ⠰⠆⠀⠰⠆ dashes —— —— ⠠⠤⠀⠤⠄