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Japanese Braille is a vowel-based Abugida . That is, the glyphs are syllabic, but unlike Kana contain separate symbols for consonants and vowels, and the vowels take 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. (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 perhaps be a design feature rather than coincidence.) However, the Semivowel ''y'' is indicated by point 4, a vowel point, and the vowel symbol is dropped to the bottom of the block. When this 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. (Except for the syllable ''wa,'' historic ''w'' is silent in modern Japanese.) UNICODE VERSION The following charts use Braille Unicode to diplay the Braille Cell s. If your browser cannot display the characters, see the Graphic Version section below. Main chart Other symbols In kana, the Voiced Consonant s ''g, z, d, b'' are derived from the voiceless consonants ''k, s, t, h'' by adding a Diacritic called '' Dakuten (ten ten)'' to the kana, as in ぎ ''gi''. Similarly, ''p'' is derived from ''h'' by adding a small circle, '' Handakuten (maru)''. Two kana are fused into a single syllable by writing the second small, as in きゃ ''kya''; this is called '' Yōon ''. In Japanese Braille, the signs for these are prefixes. That is, the order is ''tenten ki'' for ぎ ''gi''. When more than one occurs in a single syllable, they are combined in a single prefix block, as the ''yōon-tenten'' used for ぎゃ ''gya''. The ''yōon'' prefix uses the point that represents ''y'' in the blocks ''ya, yu, yo.'' When placed before ''ka, ku, ke, ko,'' it produces ''kya, kyu, kye, kyo.'' Likewise, the ''yōon-tenten'' prefix before ''ka, ku, ke, ko'' creates ''gya, gyu, gye, gyo.'' Similarly for the other consonants. The syllable ''ye'' is written ''yōon'' plus ''e.'' (Note that ''kye, gye,'' and ''ye'' are not found in native Japanese words.) ''Yōon'' and ''yōon-tenten'' are also added to ''chi'' to represent the sounds ''ti, di'' found in foreign borrowings; and similarly ''yōon-maru'' and ''yōon-tenten-maru'' (all three points on the right side of the block) 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 where ''maru'' is only used to represent ''p''. There is a second ''yōon''-like prefix for medial ''w''. When combined with ''ka,'' it produces the obsolete syllable ''kwa.'' It may also be fused with the voicing prefix for ''gwa.'' Fpr foreign borrowings, it may be combined with the vowels ''i, e, o'' for ''wi, we, wo'' (note that in the original Japanese kana for ''wi, we, wo'' the ''w'' is now silent), with ''ha, hi, he, ho'' for ''fa, fi, fe, fo'' and ''va, vi, ve, vo'' (''vu'' is written ''tenten u''), and with ''ta, chi, tsu, te, to'' for ''tsa, tsi, tu, tse, tso'' and (with ''tenten'') ''du.'' There are two other kana. One, called '' Sokuon '', is a small kana ''tsu'', っ; it is used to indicate that the following syllable is Geminate , or (in Interjection s) as a Glottal Stop . The other is a dash, ー, called a Chōon used only in katakana to indicate a long vowel. This also looks like a dash in Braille. 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. Punctuation Besides the punctuation of Japanese, Braille also has symbols to indicate that the following signs are Hindu Numeral s or in the Latin Alphabet . There are several additional punctuation marks, including one to indicate that the following signs are in English and not just in the Latin alphabet. GRAPHIC VERSION Main chart
Other symbols See above for explanation.
Punctuation See above for explanation.
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