French Braille

French Braille
Type	Alphabet (non-linear)
Languages	French
Creator	Louis Braille
Time period	1837
Parent systems	night writing early braille French Braille
Child systems	English Braille German Braille Arabic Braille etc., etc.
Unicode range	U+2800 to U+283F

French Braille is the original braille alphabet, and the basis of all others. The alphabetic order of French has become the basis of the international braille convention, used by most braille alphabets around the world. However, only the 25 basic letters of the French alphabet plus w have become internationalized; the additional letters are largely restricted to French Braille and the alphabets of some neighboring European countries.

Letters

The final form of Braille's alphabet, according to Henri (1952). The decade diacritics are listed at left, and the supplementary letters are assigned to the appropriate decade at right. Characters are derived by combining the diacritic on the left with the basic letters at top. "(1)" indicates markers for musical and mathematical notation. Parentheses and quotation marks follow English Braille usage. The number sign is used to create several arithmetical symbols which are no longer in use, or that continue in Antoine notation.

The original French Braille alphabet, according to Loomis (1942). Most accented letters of the 1829 version have been replaced with digraphs, but these are not used today.

In numerical order by decade, the letters are:

a, 1	b, 2	c, 3	d, 4	e, 5	f, 6	g, 7	h, 8	i, 9	j, 0
k	l	m	n	o	p	q	r	s	t
u	v	x	y	z	ç	é	à	è	ù
â, 1	ê, 2	î, 3	ô, 4	û, 5	ë, 6	ï, 7	ü, 8	œ, 9	w

For the purposes of accommodating a foreign alphabet, ö is considered equivalent to œ, and the letters ì, ä, ò may be added:

ì

ä

ò

Unlike English and German Braille, French Braille only uses the abbreviations and contractions present in the printed orthography.

Punctuation

Punctuation is as follows:

. /

,

;

: ÷

? subscript

! +

(

)

" =

- −

’ .

/

@

×

*

The lower values are readings within numbers (after the Antoine number marker: see below).

Formatting and mode

Formatting and mode-changing marks are:

Capitals

Emphasis

(start)

(end)

Super- script

Symbol

Currency

Traditional number

Antoine number

As in English Braille, the capital sign is doubled for all caps.

⟨⠢⟩ and ⟨⠔⟩ are used to begin and end emphasis within a word.

The symbol marker combines with a following initial letter to produce the following:

⠐⠏ §, ⠐⠿ &, ⠐⠉ ©, ⠐⠗ ®, ⠐⠞ ™, ⠐⠬ % (⠐⠬⠬ ‰, ⠐⠬⠬⠬ ‱)

The currency marker combines with a following initial for:

⠘⠽ ¥, ⠘⠑ €, ⠘⠎ $, ⠘⠇ £

It is also used in comic strips:

⠘⠻ (speech bubble), ⠘⠳ (thought bubble)

Numbers

The traditional system of digits is to add the number sign ⠼ in front of the letters of the first decade (a–j), with ⠼⠁ being ⟨1⟩ and ⠼⠚ being ⟨0⟩. This is the internationally recognized number system. However, in French Braille a new system, the Antoine braille digits, is used for mathematics and is recommended for all academic publications. This uses ⠠ combined with the first nine letters of the fourth decade, from ⠠⠡ for ⟨1⟩ to ⠠⠪ for ⟨9⟩, with the preceding ⠠⠼ for ⟨0⟩. The period/decimal and fraction bar also change. The Antoine numbers are being promoted in France, but are not use much in Quebec.

French Braille digits

		0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Traditional
Antoine

See the punctuation section above for Antoine mathematical notation.

History

For the early history of braille, including obsolete characters, see 1829 braille.

A page from an undated early braille textbook, showing both readings, with additional readings not included in Loomis. It is captioned Écritare à l'usage des Aveugles. Procédé de L. Braille. Professeur à l'institut N^l des J^nes Aveugles.

Readings have changed slightly since modern braille was first published in 1837. The greatest change has been various secondary readings which were added to the alphabet and then abandoned.

Historical readings

dec.		numeric sequence											supp.
		a 1	b 2	c 3	d 4	e 5	f 6	g 7	h 8	i 9	j 0
'		k	l	m	n	o	p	q	r	s	t		ì ian	æ ien
-		u	v	w	y	z	ç oin	é	à	è	ù ieu		ò ion	(NUM)
		â an	ê in	î on	ô un	û eu	ë ou	ï oi	ü ch	œ gn	w (i)ll		(CAP)	(ITAL)
		,	;	:	.	?	!	()	«	*	» ×

Similar alphabets

In general, only the assignments of the basic 26 letters of the French alphabet are retained in other braille alphabets. For example, among the additional letters, in German Braille only ü and ö coincide with French Braille. However, there are several alphabets which are much more closely related. Portuguese Braille, for example, is nearly identical to French in its base letters, though the specific diacritic differs in several cases (Portuguese ã for French ä, etc.). The continental Scandinavian languages add the French letters â (for å), ä/æ, and ö/ø. Spanish uses ü and has adapted the grave accent (à è ì ò ù) to its acute (á é í ó ú), but also has the letter ñ, for which it uses French ⠻ ï. Vietnamese Braille is also quite similar, though it has added tone letters, and according to some reports uses French ⠮ è (the mirror image of ⠵ z) for d (which is pronounced like z), though other sources report French z is used for Vietnamese d.

Related alphabets

Braille:
French	ç	é	à	è	ù	â	ê	î	ô	û	ë	ï	ü	œ	w	ì	ä	ò
Portuguese	ç	é	á	è	ú	â	ê	ì	ô	ù	à	ï	ü	õ	ò/w	í	ã	ó
Catalan	ç	é	à	è	ú	–	–	–	–	–	–	ï	ü	ó	w?	í	–	ò
Spanish	–	–	á	é	ú	–	–	–	–	–	–	ñ	ü	–	w	í	–	ó
Italian	–	é	à	–	ù	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	w?	ì	–	ò/ó
Luxembourgish	–	é	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	ë	–	–	–	w	–	ä	–
Scandinavian	–	–	–	–	–	å	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	ö/ø	w	–	ä/æ	–
Vietnamese	–	–		d		â	ê	–	ô	–	–	–	ư	ơ	–		ă

References

• Code braille français uniformisé pour la transcription des textes imprimés (CBFU), 2nd edition, 2008
• Code de transcription en braille des textes imprimes, 1999
• M. S. Loomis, 1942, The Braille Reference Book
• Pierre Henri, 1952, La vie et l'œvre de Louis Braille, PUF-GIAA, Paris