Taiwanese Braille

Taiwanese Braille ⠅⠒⠂⠳⠈⠀⠙⠞⠈⠓⠱⠐
Type	Semisyllabary
Languages	Standard Chinese
Parent systems	Night writing Braille Taiwanese Braille

Taiwanese Braille is the braille script used on Taiwan for Taiwanese Mandarin (Guoyu). Although based marginally on international braille, the majority of consonants have been reassigned; also, like (Mainland) Chinese Braille, Taiwanese Braille is a semi-syllabary.

An example is,

國語點字記號
⠅⠒⠂⠳⠈	⠙⠞⠈⠓⠱⠐	⠅⠡⠐⠗⠩⠁
guóyǔ	diǎnzì	jìhao

Charts

A quadriscriptal text in Chinese and Roman print and braille. In the lower right corner is the character 結 jié, written in braille as ⠅⠬⠂ gyé; compare 西 xī at the center top, rendered in braille as ⠑⠡⠄ syī.

There is a single braille letter for the zhuyin and pinyin consonant pairs ㄍㄐ (g j), ㄘㄑ (c q), ㄙㄒ (s x), as the distinction is predictable from the following vowel, with the second of each pair preceding ㄧ i or ㄩ ü.

Consonants

Zhuyin	ㄅ	ㄆ	ㄇ	ㄈ	ㄉ	ㄊ	ㄋ	ㄌ	ㄍ,ㄐ	ㄎ	ㄏ	ㄗ	ㄘ,ㄑ	ㄙ,ㄒ	ㄓ	ㄔ	ㄕ	ㄖ
Pinyin	b	p	m	f	d	t	n	l	g, j	k	h	z	c, q	s, x	zh	ch	sh	r
Braille	⠕	⠏	⠍	⠟	⠙	⠋	⠝	⠉	⠅	⠇	⠗	⠓	⠚	⠑	⠁	⠃	⠊	⠛

Simple rimes

Zhuyin	ㄚ	ㄛ	ㄜ	ㄝ	ㄧ	ㄨ	ㄩ	ㄞ	ㄟ	ㄠ	ㄡ	ㄢ	ㄣ	ㄤ	ㄥ	ㄦ,ㄭ
Pinyin	a	o	e	ê	yi, -i	wu, -u	yu, -ü	ai	ei	ao	ou	an	en	ang	eng	er, -i
Braille	⠜	⠣	⠮	⠢	⠡	⠌	⠳	⠺	⠴	⠩	⠷	⠧	⠥	⠭	⠵	⠱

The braille rime ⠱ is used for the 'empty' rimes (ㄭ) not written in zhuyin, for example in 斯 sī ⠑⠱⠄ above the word Daguerre in the image at right.

Medial + rime

Each medial + rime in zhuyin is written with a single letter in braille.

Zhuyin	ㄧㄚ	ㄧㄛ?	ㄧㄝ	ㄧㄠ	ㄧㄡ	ㄧㄢ	ㄧㄣ	ㄧㄤ	ㄧㄥ
Pinyin	ya, -ia	yo	ye, -ie	yao, -iao	you, -iu	yan, -ian	yin, -in	yang, -iang	ying, -ing
Braille	⠾	⠴	⠬	⠪	⠎	⠞	⠹	⠨	⠽

Zhuyin	ㄨㄚ	ㄨㄛ	ㄨㄞ	ㄨㄟ	ㄨㄢ	ㄨㄣ	ㄨㄤ	ㄨㄥ
Pinyin	wa, -ua	wo, -uo	wai, -uai	wei, -ui	wan, -uan	wen, -un	wang, -uang	weng, -ong
Braille	⠔	⠒	⠶	⠫	⠻	⠿	⠸	⠯

Zhuyin	ㄩㄝ	ㄩㄢ	ㄩㄣ	ㄩㄥ
Pinyin	yue, -üe	yuan, -üan	yun, -ün	yong, -iong
Braille	⠦	⠘	⠲	⠖

Tone

Tone:	1	2	3	4	0
Zhuyin	na	ˊ	ˇ	ˋ	˙
Pinyin	ˉ	ˊ	ˇ	ˋ	na
Braille	⠄	⠂	⠈	⠐	⠁

Tone is always marked. This includes toneless syllables such as 了 le, rendered ⠉⠮⠁lė in the image above-right.

Punctuation

Print	。 ・	，	；	、	？	！	：
Braille	⠤	⠆	⠰	⠠	⠕	⠇	⠒⠒

Print	＿＿	﹏﹏	……	—	—— ——	※	◎
Braille	⠰⠰	⠠⠤	⠐⠐⠐	⠐⠂	⠐⠂ ⠐⠂	⠈⠼	⠪⠕

Print	「 」	『 』	（ ）	〔 〕	｛ ｝
Braille	⠰⠤ ⠤⠆	⠦⠦ ⠴⠴	⠪ ⠕	⠯ ⠽	⠦ ⠴

External links

• 國語點字自學手冊, National Taiwan Library

  (a copy here)