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Translingual
A character of the braille script, originally used as a marker of numerical digits and mathematical notation.
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.
Letter
⠼
- Non-Latin transliteration
- (International Greek Braille) ῶ (õ)
- (Bharati Braille) ण (ṇa)
Punctuation mark
⠼
- used to indicate that the subsequent Braille characters are to be read as digits rather than as letters
Usage notes
- Apart from some specialized symbol codes, not used for the hash symbol #, which is how it is sometimes misleadingly transcribed.
Symbol
⠼
- (music) perfect fourth.
- (Gardner–Salinas proposal) ⟨#⟩
See also
English
Punctuation mark
⠼ (#)
- used to indicate that the subsequent Braille characters are to be read as digits rather than as letters
Usage notes
Repeated for a span of numbers or dates separated by a dash, such as "pages 13–31", but not for individual hyphenated dates such as "2024-12-31". Braille hyphens are used for print slashes in dates, so ⟨10/2–10/7⟩ is written ⟨⠼⠁⠚⠤⠃⠤⠼⠁⠚⠤⠛⟩, with three hyphens.
Letter
⠼
Usage notes
- Can not appear at the beginning of a word, as in bled (⠼⠙ would be read instead as the digit '4'), or where it would contact an apostrophe or hyphen, but may occur within a word as in problem. Cannot span a compound word or obvious affix, as in sublet.
- Abolished in Unified English Braille.
French
Numeral
⠼ (0)
- (in the context of the Antoine number sign ⟨⠠⟩) 0
Symbol
⠼ (#)
- (dated) the older number sign, as in English Braille.
Usage notes
The Antoine system is more common in academic texts, but the older system is still in use.
Contraction
⠼
- The independent word lui.
- The letter sequence ion.
Usage notes
- The sequence ion may appear anywhere in its word.
Korean
Symbol
⠼ • (#)
- Marks the following text as being numerical digits, with the same assignments as in English and traditional French braille.
Luxembourgish
Numeral
⠼ (0)
- The digit 0.
See also
Mandarin
Letter
⠼
- (Mainland Braille) The rime eng
- (Two-Cell Braille) The rime -ěi
Punctuation mark
⠼ (〃)
- (Two-Cell Braille) Reduplication mark
Usage notes
- As part of a word it reduplicates a syllable; standing on its own it reduplicates the previous word.
Symbol
⠼ (#)
- Marks the following text as being numerical digits, with the same assignments as in English and traditional French braille.