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Home , Braille, Braille Patterns, English Braille, Ga (kana), Gi (kana), Hiragana

Japanese Tutorial

By Mitsuji Kadota ([email protected]) Last update: 1997.10.20

Table of contents

1. Introduction 1.1 Difference in Japanese and English 2. Transcribing Japanese sentence Braille 2.1 Transcription from to 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 3.6 Alpahbets 3.6 Other characters 4. Japanese sentence example

1. Introduction

Braille system was invented by in 1825 and was established as the international standard in 1878. system is based on Louis Braille' 6- system, and improved byKuraji Ishikawa. Ishikawa made Japanese Braille system fit to .

Phonological and orthographic difference in Japanese and English makes transcription process of Japanese Braille very unique.

1.1 Difference in Japanese and

The noticeable phonological difference between Japanese and English is in structure where English syllable is basically closed (CVC: + a vowel + a consonant) and Japanese syllable, open (CV).

In terms of , Japanese is written with Kanji, Kana ( and ), western and Arabic numerals. Kanji is an imported from 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 whereas Kana's, as function words. Since Japanese is written with a combination of Kanji and Kana, unlike English and other western , a 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 . 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). first step is the transcription from Kanji to Kana's.

A Kanji has multiple ways of : 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 . The rule of Japanese Braille provides the last two processes. But sometimes the rule is not unified, especially for numerals, personal 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, 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 coding.

3. Japanese Braille

In this section, 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","","","") is represented by dots 1-2-4. This representation is same as "a","","","","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("","s","","","","").

*- *- ** ** -* -- *- -- *- *- -* -* -* -* -*

*- *- ** ** -* -* ** -* ** ** -* -* -* -* -* si so

*- *- ** ** -* -* ** -* ** ** *- *- *- *- *- ti tu to

*- *- ** ** -* -- *- -- *- *-. *- *- *- *- *-

*- *- ** ** -* -- *- -- *- *-. ** ** ** ** **

*- *- ** ** -* -* ** -* ** **. ** ** ** ** **

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

-* -* -* -- -- -* *- ** *- ya

*- *- ** ** -* -* ** -* ** ** ------ra

------* -* *- *- ** wa o() n

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

-- -- ** *- -- -- (tyou-on) (soku-on)

(Ex) ** -- ** -* ** -* -* -- *- su - tu ("suits")

*- -- *- *- *- -* -- -- *- i t 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.

-- *- -- *- -- ** -- ** -- -* -* -- -* *- -* -- -* *- -* *- -- -* -- -* -- -* -- -* -- -* gu go (daku-on of "ka" line)

-- *- -- *- -- ** -- ** -- -* -* -* -* ** -* -* -* ** -* ** -- -* -- -* -- -* -- -* -- -* za zi zu ze zo (daku-on of "sa" line)

-- *- -- *- -- ** -- ** -- -* -* -* -* ** -* -* -* ** -* ** -- *- -- *- -- *- -- *- -- *- da di du de do (daku-on of "ta" line)

-- *- -- *- -- ** -- ** -- -* -* -- -* *- -* -- -* *- -* *- -- ** -- ** -- ** -- ** -- ** ba bi bu be bo (daku-on of "ha" line)

-- *- -- *- -- ** -- ** -- -* ------*------*- -- *- -* ** -* ** -* ** -* ** -* ** pa pi pe po (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 kyu kyo (you-on of "ka" line)

-* *- -* ** -* -* -- -* -- -* -- ** -- -* -- -* -- -* sya syu syo (you-on of "sa" line)

-* *- -* ** -* -* -- -* -- -* -- ** -- *- -- *- -- *- tya tyu tyo (you-on of "ta" line)

-* *- -* ** -* -* ------*- -- *- -- *- -- *- nya nyu nyo (you-on of "na" line)

-* *- -* ** -* -* ------*- -- ** -- ** -- ** hya hyu hyo (you-on of "ha" line)

-* *- -* ** -* -* -- -* -- -* -- ** -- ** -- ** -- ** mya myu myo (you-on of "ma" line)

-* *- -* ** -* -* -- -* -- -* -- ** ------rya ryo (you-on of "ra" line)

You-on of daku-on : -* *- -* ** -* -* -* -- -* -- -* *- -- -* -- -* -- -* gya gyu gyo (you-on of "ga" line)

-* *- -* ** -* -* -* -* -* -* -* ** -- -* -- -* -- -* zya zyu zyo (you-on of "za" line)

-* *- -* ** -* -* -* -* -* -* -* ** -- *- -- *- -- *- zya zyu zyo (dya dyu dyo = "ti" + daku-ten + vowel)

-* *- -* ** -* -* -* -- -* -- -* *- -- ** -- ** -- ** bya byu byo (you-on of "ba" line)

-* *- -* ** -* -* ------*- -* ** -* ** -* ** pya pyu pyo (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.

-* ** -- *- -- -- ("i" + small "e")

-- *- -- ** -- -* *- *- *- *- *- *- -* -- -* -- -* -- we wo ("u" + small vowel)

-- *- -- *- -- ** -- -* *- -* *- ** *- ** *- ** -* *- -* *- -* *- -* *- tsa tsi tse tso ("tu" + small vowel)

-- *- -- *- -- ** -- -* *- -- *- *- *- *- *- *- -* ** -* ** -* ** -* ** fa fi fe fo ("hu" + small vowel)

-- *- -- *- -- ** -- ** -- -* ** -- ** *- -* -- ** *- ** *- -* ** -* ** -- -- -* ** -* ** va vi vu 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 2 3 4 5

-* ** -* ** -* *- -* -* -* -* -* *- -* ** -* ** -* *- -* ** ** -- ** -- ** -- ** -- ** -- 6 7 8 9 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

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)

-- *- -* *- -* *-

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

(Ex)

-- -- -* *- ** *- ** -- *- -- ** -- *- -- -* -* ** -* -- -- *- -- *- ** a p a n

3.7 Other characters

-- ** -* .(Japanse period)

-- *- -* ?

-- ** *- !

-- -* -* , (Japanse )

-- -* -- (dot)

------.. -- ** ** (Japanse quotation)

-- -- ** .. ** ** ** "(" ")"

4. Japanse sentence example

(Ex)

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

(He asked, "Why?")

Japanese Braille

Japanese Braille ⠇⠮⠴⠟⠴⠐⠳

Type Languages Japanese Night Parent  Braille systems o Japanese Braille

Two-Cell Chinese Braille (in Child systems conception)

Japanese Braille on a can of Asahi Super Dry beer, written ""

Japanese Braille is the braille of the Japanese language. It is based on the original braille script, though the connection is tenuous. In Japanese it is known as tenji (点字?), 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 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 are written in the lower right corner (points 3, 5, 6) and cannot occur alone.[1] However, the semivowel 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 beginning with the vowel is also dropped, but no consonant is written.[2] Main chart

To the vowels are assigned the international 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 , on the other hand, have no apparent connection to international values or numerical order, corresponding as they do to 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]

あ a い i う u え e お o

か ka き ki く ku け ke こ ko k

さ sa し す su せ se そ so s

た ta ち つ て te と to t

な na に ni ぬ nu ね ne の no n

は ha ひ hi ふ へ he ほ ho h

ま ma み mi む mu め me も mo ん n m

や ya ゆ yu よ yo -y- y

ら ra り ri る ru れ re ろ ro

わ wa ゐ (w)i ゑ (w)e を (w)o -w- w

Other symbols

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

sokuon chōon

The placement of these blocks mirrors the equivalent kana: the sokuon indicates that the following consonant is geminant, whereas the chōon indicates that the preceding vowel is long.

In kana, the voiced consonants , , d, b are derived from the voiceless consonants k, s, t, h by adding a called dakuten to the kana, as in ぎ 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 きゃ kya from ki + ya; this is called yōon. [3]