Chinese Braille initials generally follow the pinyin assignments of internationalbraille. However, j, q, x are replaced with g, k, h, as the difference is predictable from the final. The digraphs ch, sh, zh are assigned to , , and. R is assigned to, reflecting the old Wade-Giles transcription of.
Pinyin
b
p
m
f
d
t
n
l
g/j
k/q
h/x
zh
ch
sh
r
z
c
s
Bopomofo
ㄅ
ㄆ
ㄇ
ㄈ
ㄉ
ㄊ
ㄋ
ㄌ
ㄍ ㄐ
ㄎ ㄑ
ㄏ ㄒ
ㄓ
ㄔ
ㄕ
ㄖ
ㄗ
ㄘ
ㄙ
Braille
Finals
The finals approximate international values for several of the basic vowels, but then necessarily diverge. However, there are a few parallels with other braille alphabets: er and wai are pronounced like the names of those letters in English braille; ye, ya, and you are pronounced like those letters in Russian Braille. yuan, yue, yin, are similar to the old French pronunciationsoin, ieu, in. For the most part, however, Chinese Braille finals do not obviously derive from previous conventions. The pinyin final -i is only written where it corresponds to yi. Otherwise* no final is written, a convention also found in zhuyin. The final -e is not written in de, a common grammatical particle written with several different characters in print.
Tones
Tone is marked sparingly.
Tone
1
2
3
4
neutral
Pinyin
¯
´
ˇ
`
Zhuyin
ˊ
ˇ
ˋ
˙
Braille
Punctuation
Chinese Braille punctuation approximates the form of international braille punctuation, but several spread the corresponding dots across two cells rather than one. For example, the period is, which is the same pattern as the international single-cell norm of.
Print
Chinese Braille
French equivalent
-
-
-
-
Rules
Spaces are added between words, rather than between syllables.
Tone is marked when needed. It comes after the final.
As in zhuyin, the finals of the syllables zi, ci, si, zhi, chi, shi, ri are not marked.
Two examples, the first with full tone marking, the second with tone for disambiguation only:
Ambiguity
Chinese Braille has the same low level of ambiguity that pinyin does. In practice, tone is omitted 95% of the time, which leads to a space saving of a third. Tone is also omitted in pinyin military telegraphy, and causes little confusion in context. The initial pairs g/j, k/q, h/x are distinguished by the final: initials j, q, x are followed by the vowels i or ü, while the initials g, k, h are followed by other vowels. This reflects the historical derivation of j, q, x from g, k, h before i and ü, and parallels the dual pronunciations of c and g in Spanish and Italian. In pinyin, the redundancy is resolved in the other direction, with the diaeresis omitted from ü after j, q, x. Thus braille is equivalent to pinyin ju:
