Japanese Braille Tutorial

By Mitsuji Kadota (orecchi@usa.net) Last update: 1997.10.20

Table of contents
1. Introduction 1.1 Difference in Japanese and English language 2. Transcribing Japanese sentence to Braille 2.1 Transcription from Kanji to Kana 2.2 Transcription from Kana to Braille 3. Japanse Braille 3.1 Normal characters 3.2 Daku-on 3.3 You-on 3.4 Tokusyu-on 3.5 Arabic numerals 3.6 Alpahbets 3.6 Other characters 4. Japanese sentence example

1. Introduction
Braille system was invented by Louis Braille in 1825 and was established as the international standard in 1878. Japanese Braille system is based on Louis Braille's 6-dot system, and improved byKuraji Ishikawa. Ishikawa made Japanese Braille system fit to Japanese language. Phonological and orthographic difference in Japanese and English makes transcription process of Japanese Braille very unique.

1.1 Difference in Japanese and English language

The noticeable phonological difference between Japanese and English is in syllable structure where English syllable is basically closed (CVC: a consonant + a vowel + a consonant) and Japanese syllable, open (CV). In terms of orthography, Japanese is written with Kanji, Kana (Hiragana and Katakana), western alphabet and Arabic numerals. Kanji is an ideogram imported from China and Kana is a phonogram created from Kanji by Japanese. While alphabet represents a single sound, Kana represents a syllable (a consonant and a vowel). Each Kanji can be transcribed by Kana's. Generally, Kanji's are used as independent words whereas Kana's, as function words. Since Japanese is written with a combination of Kanji and Kana, unlike English and other western languages, a space is not usually inserted between words.

2. Transcribing Japanese sentence to Braille

In order to transcribe Japanese sentence to Braille, two levels of work is done. First, transcribe Kanji to Kana. Secondly, transcribe Kana to Braille based on Japanese Braille code.

2.1 Transcription from Kanji to Kana

Generally, Japanese Braille is described by Kana's (The method which can represent Kanji's by 6 dots also exists). So first step is the transcription from Kanji to Kana's. A Kanji has multiple ways of reading: the sound of Japanese origin, "kun" and that of Chinese origin, "on". Appearance of these two sounds in sentence is based on complex rules of Japanese. After that, insert space between words in order to make all Kana strings easy to read.Finally, several Kana characters, which have the same sound as basic Kana have to be fixed. The rule of Japanese Braille provides the last two processes. But sometimes the rule is not unified, especially for numerals, personal nouns and foreign words.

2.2 Transcription from Kana to Braille

Braille has 6 dots in a cell and each cell can represent 63 kinds of letters. This is not sufficient to cover Japanese orthography at all when Kanji's are considered. This is why Kanji-Kana conversion is necessary. However, we still need to secure 98 kinds and 63 is not enough. Therefore the following rules were defined by Ishikawa, the inventor of Japanese Braille.

1. Among 6 dots, 3 dots (dots 1-2-4) are to represent a vowel, the other 3 dots(dots 3-5-6) a consonant. 2. Braille for "Daku-on", voiced sounds and "You-on", sounds of combination of CyV such as in "kya" uses 2 cells where first cell contains an indicator for such sounds.

Arabic numerals and alphabet are represented in different rules which basically follows the English Braille coding.

3. Japanese Braille
In this section, I will describe combinations between Kana characters and Braille. Roman representation of Japanese is based on ISO3062, except Tokusyu- on. But this standard is sometimes incovenient, so I put down different representation with the standard.

3.1 Normal characters

Vowel in Japanese ("a","i","u","e","o") is represented by dots 1-2-4. This representation is same as "a","b","c","d","e" in Englis Braille.
*--a **-i ** --u ** *-e -* *-o

You can write most of normal characters by adding dots 3-5-6, which represent consonant("k","s","t","n","h","m").
*--* ka *-* -* sa **-* ki *** -* si ** --* ku ** -* -* su ** *-* ke ** ** -* se -* *-* ko -* ** -* so

*-* *ta *-*na *-** ha *-* ** ma

*** *ti ***ni **** hi *** ** mi

** -* *tu ** -*nu ** -** hu ** -* ** mu

** ** *te ** **ne ** *** he ** ** ** me

-* ** *to -* *-. *no -* *-. ** ho -* **. ** mo

And the rest of normal characters("ya","ra","wa","n" line) are represented as follows:

-* -*ya *-* -ra --*wa -* -** yu *** -ri -* -* *yo ** -* -ru ** ** -re --* ** n -* ** -ro

--* *o(wo)

Tyou-on and Soku-on(normally represented as small "tu") are:

-** -(tyou-on) (Ex) ** --* ** -* -su **-i -*-t -*-(soku-on)

** -* *tu ("suits") *-* *ta ("said" or "went")

3.2 Daku-on (voiced sounds)

Daku-on are represented by placing a indicator before normal character. Two types of indicator are used: dot 5 and dot 6.

-- *-* --- -* ga -- *-* -* -- -* za -- *-* -* -- *da -- *-* --- ** ba -- *-- --* ** pa

-- *-* *-- -* gi -- *-* ** -- -* zi -- *-* ** -- *di -- *-* *-- ** bi -- *-- *-* ** pi

-- ** -* --- -* gu -- ** -* -* -- -* zu -- ** -* -* -- *du -- ** -* --- ** bu -- ** -- --* ** pu

-- ** -* *-- -* ge -- ** -* ** -- -* ze -- ** -* ** -- *de -- ** -* *-- ** be -- ** -- *-* ** pe

-- -* -* *-- -* go -- -* -* ** -- -* zo -- -* -* ** -- *do -- -* -* *-- ** bo -- -* -- *-* ** po

(daku-on of "ka" line)

(daku-on of "sa" line)

(daku-on of "ta" line)

(daku-on of "ha" line)

(han-daku-on of "ha" line)

3.3 You-on (CyV)

Basically, you-on are represented by placing a indicator (dot 4) before normal character. you on of daku-on's indicator is 4-5 or 4-6.
-* *-- --- -* kya -* *-- -* -- -* sya -* *-- -* -- *tya -* *-- --- *nya -* *-- --- ** hya -* *-- -* -- ** mya -* *-- -* -- -rya -* ** -- --- -* kyu -* ** -- -* -- -* syu -* ** -- -* -- *tyu -* ** -- --- *nyu -* ** -- --- ** hyu -* ** -- -* -- ** myu -* ** -- -* -- -ryu -* -* -- *-- -* kyo -* -* -- ** -- -* syo -* -* -- ** -- *tyo -* -* -- *-- *nyo -* -* -- *-- ** hyo -* -* -- ** -- ** myo -* -* -- ** -- -ryo

(you-on of "ka" line)

(you-on of "sa" line)

(you-on of "ta" line)

(you-on of "na" line)

(you-on of "ha" line)

(you-on of "ma" line)

(you-on of "ra" line)

You-on of daku-on :
-* *-* --- -* gya -* *-* -* -- -* zya -* *-* -* -- *zya (dya -* *-* --- ** bya -* *-- --* ** pya -* ** -* --- -* gyu -* ** -* -* -- -* zyu -* ** -* -* -- *zyu dyu -* ** -* --- ** byu -* ** -- --* ** pyu -* -* -* *-- -* gyo -* -* -* ** -- -* zyo

(you-on of "ga" line)

(you-on of "za" line)

-* -* -* ** -- *zyo dyo = "ti" + daku-ten + vowel) -* -* -* *-- ** byo -* -* -- *-* ** pyo

(you-on of "ba" line)

(you-on of "pa" line)

3.4 Tokusyu-on (special sounds)

Tokusyu-on are represented by placing a indicator before normal character. Five types of indicator are used: dot 4, 2-6, 4-6, 2-5-6,and 4-5-6.
-* ** -- *-- -ye -- **- *-* -wi -- **- -* -* *tsa -- **- --* ** fa -- *** --* ** va

("i" + small "e") -- ** *- *-* -we -- **- ** -* *tsi -- **- *-* ** fi -- *** *-* ** vi -- -* *- *-* -wo ("u" + small vowel) -- ** *- ** -* *tse -- ** *- *-* ** fe -- ** -* --- -vu -- -* *- ** -* *tso ("tu" + small vowel) -- -* *- *-* ** fo ("hu" + small vowel) -- ** ** *-* ** ve -- -* ** *-* ** vo ("u" + daku-ten + small vowel, except for "vu")

-* ** -- ** -- -* sye ("si" + small "e")

-* ** -* ** -- -* je ("zi" + small "e") -* ** -- ** -- *tye ("ti" + small "e") -* *-- ** -- *tyi ("te" + small "i") -* *-* ** -- *dyi ("de" + small "i") -- ** *- -* -* *twu ("to" + small "u") -- ** ** -* -* *dwu ("do" + small "u") -* ** -- -* -* *tyu ("te" + small "yu") -* ** -* -* -* *dyu ("de" + small "yu") -- **- --* -* kwa ("ku" + small"a") -- *** --* -* gwa ("gu" +

small"a")

3.5 Arabic numerals

Arabic numerals are represented by placing indicator(3-4-5-6) before the cells.
-* *-* -** -1 -* ** -* *** -6 -* *-* *** -2 -* ** -* ** ** -7 -* ** -* -** -3 -* *-* ** ** -8 -* ** -* -* ** -4 -* -* -* *** -9 -* *-* -* ** -5 -* -* -* ** ** -0

(ex) -* *-* -** -1

-*-.

** ** -7

Once a indicator appeared, following characters are treated as numerals, unless the cell doesn't represent any numerals. If you want to stop this treatment, you can place a "connector"(3-6).
(Ex) -* *-* *** -2 *-* -5 -* *-* ko

-* *- *- ** -* *- -* *** -- -- -2 5 6 -* *- *- --* *- -* -** -- -- ** 2 5 ** *-e --* ** n

3.6 Alphabets
Alphabet coding rules are basically same as English Braille. You can write Alphabets in Japanese Braille by two methods. 1)Using indicator 5-6.
(Ex) -- *-* *-* *l

2)Placing cells between 2-3-6 and 3-5-6.

(Ex) -- -- -* **- -- ** -** -* -- -J a ** **p *--a ** --* -* *- ** n

3.7 Other characters

-** -* .(Japanse period) -*-* ?

-** *! --* -* , (Japanse comma) --* -(dot) ---- .. -** ** (Japanse quotation) -** .. ** "(" -** ** ")"

4. Japanse sentence example

(Ex) *--* ka ** ** -re --*wa --** " *- -- ** -- --- -* ** *- -*- -- -* -* ** na ze ? " -* ** *to **-* ki **-i *-* *ta -** -* .

(He asked, "Why?")

Japanese Braille
Type Languages Parent systems Japanese Braille Abugida Japanese Night writing
o

Braille Japanese Braille

Child systems

Two-Cell Chinese Braille (in conception)

Japanese Braille on a can of Asahi Super Dry beer, written "sake" Japanese Braille is the braille script of the Japanese language. It is based on the original braille script, though the connection is tenuous. In Japanese it is known as tenji (?), literally "dot characters". Below is a basic chart of Japanese Braille with the Japanese hiragana character followed by the standard roman character reading above each braille character. Japanese Braille is a vowel-based abugida. That is, the glyphs are syllabic, but unlike kana contain separate symbols for consonant and vowel, and the vowel takes primacy. The vowels are written in the upper left corner (points 1, 2, 4) and may be used alone. The consonants are written in the lower right corner (points 3, 5, 6) and cannot occur alone.[1] However, the semivowel y is indicated by point 4, one of the vowel points, and the vowel combination is dropped to the bottom of the block. When this point is written in isolation, it indicates that the following syllable has a medial y, as in mya. For syllables beginning with w the vowel is also dropped, but no consonant is written.[2]

Main chart
To the vowels are assigned the international braille patterns of the upper-left half of the cell (dots 1-2-4) in numerical order: (or, equivalently, the first 5 letters of Braille's alphabet, , rotated to fit the available space). The consonantal diacritics, on the other hand, have no apparent connection to international values or numerical order, corresponding as they do to punctuation and formatting marks. For illustration, the vowel points are written in black, and the consonant points in green. There is no such distinction in braille as it is actually used.[3]

ka ki ku ke k sa shi su se s

ko

so

 ta chi tsu te t na ni nu ne n ha hi fu he h

to

no

ho

ma mi mu me mo n m ya y ra r wa (w)i w (w)e (w)o ri ru re ro yu yo

-y-

-w-

Other symbols
In kana, a small tsu (), called sokuon, is used to indicate that the following consonant is geminate, and in interjections as a glottal stop. In katakana only, a long vowel is indicated with dash, , called a chon. This also looks like a dash in braille:[3] sokuon chon

The placement of these blocks mirrors the equivalent kana: the sokuon indicates that the following consonant is geminant, whereas the chon indicates that the preceding vowel is long. In kana, the voiced consonants g, z, d, b are derived from the voiceless consonants k, s, t, h by adding a diacritic called dakuten to the kana, as in gi; in foreign words, vu is written by adding this to the vowel u. Similarly, p is derived from h by adding a small circle, handakuten. Two kana are fused into a single syllable by writing the second small, as in kya from ki + ya; this is called yon. [3]

In Japanese Braille, the signs for these are prefixes. That is, the order is dakuten + ki for gi. When more than one occurs in a single syllable, they are combined in a single prefix block, as the yon-dakuten used for gya. [3] dakuten handakuten yon yon + yon + (voice) (p-) (-y-) dakuten handakuten

The yon prefix uses the point that represents y in the blocks ya, yu, yo. When placed before ka, ku, ko, it produces kya, kyu, kyo. Likewise, the yon-dakuten prefix before ka, ku, ko creates gya, gyu, gyo. And so on for the other consonants. Unlike kana, which uses a subscript e, in braille the -ye in foreign borrowings is written with yon and the kana from the e row: that is, kye, she, che, nye, hye, mye, rye, voiced gye, je, bye, and plosive pye are written with the yon prefixes plus ke, se, te, ne, he, me, re. The syllable ye is written yon plus e. There is also a prefix for medial -w- called gyon. When combined with ka, it produces the obsolete syllable kwa. It may also be fused with the voicing prefix for gwa. For foreign borrowings, this extends to kwi, kwe, kwo and gwa gwi gwe gwo. Gyon may also be combined with the vowels i, e, o for foreign wi, we, wo (now that the w in the original Japanese kana for wi, we, wo is silent); with ha, hi, he, ho for fa, fi, fe, fo and (when voiced) for va, vi, ve, vo; and with ta, chi, te, to for tsa, tsi, tse, tso. These two prefixes are identical to the question mark and full stop. gyon gyon + (-w-) dakuten

These all parallel usage in kana. However, there are additional conventions which are unique to braille. Yon and yon-dakuten are also added to chi and shi to write ti, di and si, zi found in foreign borrowings; similarly gyon and gyon-dakuten are added to tsu to write tu, du. This differs from the system used in kana, where the base syllables are te and to respectively, and a subscript vowel i or u is added. In an assignment that is counter-intuitive in kana, yon + handakuten is prefixed to tsu, yu, yo to produce tyu, fyu, fyo in foreign words, and voiced for dyu, vyu, vyo. The latteryon + dakuten + handakuten, is impossible in kana: yon + dakuten + handakuten

Punctuation
Besides the punctuation of Japanese, braille also has symbols to indicate that the following characters are Hindu numerals or the Latin alphabet.[3]

()

num. Latin upper case hyph.

There are several additional punctuation marks, including one to indicate that the following characters are English words and not just in the Latin alphabet.

External links

The Braille Authority of Japan -- the standard-setting body for braille notation in Japan World Blind Union "The Monument "Birthplace of Tokyo Moa Gakko and Japan Braille System" unveiled"

1. ^ An isolated t would be read as wo, for example. The only exception is m, which when written alone is the syllabic nasal, which may be a design feature rather than coincidence, as the syllabic nasal derives from historic mu. 2. ^ Except for the syllable wa, historic w is silent in modern Japanese. 3. ^ a b c d e " (tenji o yonde miyoo)". Braille Authority of Japan. Retrieved 201205-10.