Cantonese Braille

Cantonese Braille () is a braille script used to write Cantonese in Hong Kong and Macau. It is locally referred to as tim chi (點字, dim2zi6) 'dot characters' or more commonly but ambiguously tuk chi (凸字, dat6zi6) 'raised characters'. Although Cantonese is written in Chinese characters, Cantonese Braille is purely phonetic, with punctuation, digits and Latin letters from the original Braille. It can be mixed with English text.

Charts Each syllable is divided into three parts: the initial consonant, the rime (vowel and any final consonant), and the tone. For example, 盤, pun4 is written , with initial p, final un and tone 4.Jennie Lam Suk Yin, 2003, Confusion of tones in visually-impaired children using Cantonese braille(Archived by WebCite® at (See Cantonese phonology.) Among initials, aspirated consonants (p t ts k kw = p' t' ts' k' kw''') are derived by adding dots to the unaspirated consonants (b d dz g gw = p t ts k kw):

+Initials BraillePinyinbpmfBraillePinyindtnlBraillePinyingknghBraillePinyingwkwwBraillePinyindztssjM and ng may also be used as rimes (syllabic nasals), in which case they are followed directly by the tone. When i or u (but not y) begins a syllable, a dummy consonant j or w is prefixed.

+RimesBraillePinyin aa aai aau aam aan aang aap aat aak Braille Pinyin–ai au am an ang ap at ak Braille()() () Pinyineeieuem–engep–ek BraillePinyinsz†iiuiminingipitik BraillePinyinooiouom†onongop†otok Braille Pinyinuui––unung–utuk Braille Pinyinoeoey––oenoeng–oetoek Braille Pinyiny–––yn––yt– † represents the symbol was abolished in the revised version in 1990.

The rimes eu, em, ep'' do not exist in braille.

High tone (tones 1 and 7) is not transcribed. Otherwise tone is written after the rime, as follows: +TonesBraillePinyin2345689

In numerical order, the cells are as follows:

0 main sequence suppl. t2 a dz-aang () e f-ot ng-ang h-ei i j-oey t3 aan t4/9 g-aak l- m-m n-on o b-aap gw-uk k-ik s-oen d-aat aau aam () u ou ts-oet iu ut p-ip () yt un t-it aai () t5 au oi ai y oe an kw-ok ui oek w-ek ak am t6 yn oeng in ap im eng ung at ing t8 ong

Punctuation Some of the punctuation marks are distinguished from the onset or rime of a syllable by the strategic use of the space. The spaces are therefore included in the table below, though they are not technically part of the punctuation mark.

Braille Print 。?!:; - —… Braille Print ·()[]《》〈〉 Braille Print ,、“”‘’start emph.end emph.start nameend name

The emphasis marks, are equivalent to running dots alongside the characters in print, while proper names are marked in print by an underline or overline.

Cantonese Braille

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