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Translingual
Etymology
Invented by Louis Braille, braille cells were arranged in numerical order and assigned to the letters of the French alphabet. Most braille alphabets follow this assignment for the 26 letters of the basic Latin alphabet or, in non-Latin scripts, for the transliterations of those letters. In such alphabets, the first ten braille letters (the first decade: ⠁⠃⠉⠙⠑⠋⠛⠓⠊⠚) are assigned to the Latin letters A to J and to the digits 1 to 9 and 0. (Apart from '2', the even digits all have three dots: ⠃⠙⠋⠓⠚.)
The letters of the first decade are those cells with at least one dot in the top row and at least one in the left column, but none in the bottom row. The next decade repeat the pattern with the addition of a dot at the lower left, the third decade with two dots in the bottom row, and the fourth with a dot on the bottom right. The fifth decade is like the first, but shifted downward one row. The first decade is supplemented by the two characters with dots in the right column and none in the bottom row, and that supplement is propagated to the other decades using the generation rules above. Finally, there are four characters with no dots in the top two rows. Many languages that use braille letters beyond the 26 of the basic Latin alphabet follow an approximation of the English or French values for additional letters.
Symbol
⠰
- (Czech Braille) The marker for ALL CAPS
- (Persian Braille) A prefix for mathematical symbols
- (IPA Braille) Marks national orthography (once for one letter, doubled for a passage, until ended with ⟨⠰⠆⟩.)
- (music) 6th octave.
Punctuation mark
⠰
- (Arabic Braille) semicolon
Letter
⠰
- (Vietnamese Braille) tone ◌̀
- Non-Latin transliteration
- (Bharati Braille) the anusvara, ◌ं (ṁ)
- (Tamil, Malayalam Braille) ன/ഩ (ṉa)
- (Cantonese Braille) The rime ong
See also
English
Prefix
⠰
- marks a cell as having its letter value.
- Used when a cell would otherwise be read as a digit or word. For example, ⠼⠙⠰⠁ is 4a rather than 41, and ⠰⠃ is the letter b itself rather than the word be.
- (Unified English Braille) marks a cell as having its Grade-1 (uncontracted) value.
- Used when a cell would otherwise be read as a sequence or contraction. For example, ⠰⠃ is the letter b itself rather than the word be (as above); ⠰⠳ clarifies that the ⠳ is an arrow icon rather than the sequence ou.
- marks a cell as being a non-Latin word or a foreign punctuation mark.
Usage notes
- The letter sign is mostly only used for the letters 'a' to 'j', which double as digits. However, when a unit of measure follows a number without an intervening space, the letter sign is used regardless. E.g. '5ml' is ⠼⠑⠰⠍⠇.
- The foreign-word use may be doubled to ⠰⠰ for extended text.
Prefix
⠰
- Marks various letter sequences that are common at the ends of words:
Usage notes
- These sequences can occur in the middle or end of a word, but not at the beginning (e.g. not for mental). It need not be a morpheme, and may cross syllables.
- -ness is used for the suffix -ess after n, though not after en or in, which are contracted instead: e.g. it is used in baroness and lioness but not in chieftainess.
- The suffix -full is not spelled with ⠰⠇ ful in order to preserve the parallel with the independent word full. However, the suffixes -ful and -fully are spelled with ⠰⠇ ful.
- In the United States, -ation is spelled ⠠⠝.
French
Prefix
⠰
- marks a cell as having its basic/uncontracted value.
Contraction
⠰ (or)
- The letter sequence or.
Usage notes
- The sequence or may appear anywhere in its word, as long as it is preceded by at least one letter.
Korean
Letter
⠰ • (ch-)
- Syllable-intial ㅊ (ch)
Coordinate terms
- Syllable-final ⠆.
Mandarin
Symbol
⠰
- (Two-Cell Braille) Marks foreign script
Punctuation mark
⠰
- (Mainland Braille) semicolon