Taiwanese Braille Explained

Taiwanese Braille
Type:	Semisyllabary
Languages:	Standard Mandarin
Fam1:	Night writing
Fam2:	Braille
Print:	Zhuyin
Note:	none

Taiwanese Braille is the braille script used in Taiwan for Taiwanese Mandarin (Guoyu).^[1] Although based marginally on international braille, most 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

ㄭ

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 (pronounced as //k//), ㄘ c (pronounced as //tsʰ//), and ㄙ s (pronounced as //s//) double for the alveolo-palatal consonants ㄐ j (pronounced as //tɕ//), ㄑ q (pronounced as //tɕʰ//), and ㄒ x (pronounced as //ɕ//).^[3] The latter are followed by close front vowels, namely ㄧ i (pronounced as //i//) and ㄩ ü (pronounced as //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 (pronounced as /[ɨ]/), which is not written in zhuyin, and the rime ㄦ er (pronounced as /[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		ˊ	ˇ	ˋ	˙
Pinyin	ˉ	ˊ	ˇ	ˋ
Braille

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

Punctuation marks

Punctuation^[5]

Print	「 ... 」	『 ... 』	（ ... ）	〔 ... 〕	｛ ... ｝
Braille	...	...	...	...	...

External links

• 國語點字自學手冊, National Taiwan Library

(a copy here)

Notes and 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
4. Web site: JAPANESE BRAILLE. : languagehat.com . 2022-02-27 . languagehat.com.
5. 萬明美, 2001, 「視障教育」, 五南圖書出版股份有限公司, p. 74 ff