Unit 2 Alphabetic Wordsigns
Can you read this passage?
Gr8 prty at CSU, 9PM. BYOB ‘n don't 4get 2 RSVP.
Now try again.
Great party at California State University, 9:00 Post Meridiem. Bring Your Own Bottle and do not forget to Répondez S'il Vous Plait.
The contracted words and phrases shortened the passage and made it easier to read. We do this in braille, too. Braille uses a system of contracted, or shortened, groups of letters to make reading faster and shorter. We call this contracted braille. Letters/words that are not contracted or shortened are called uncontracted braille. The name has nothing to do with school grades.
Alphabetic Wordsigns
In braille, some words are represented by a single letter of the alphabet. We have contracted, or simplified, the word. There are 23 Alphabetic Wordsigns and they follow the Stand Alone Rule (a, i, and o already have their own word meaning).
Stand Alone Rule:
When a single letter stands alone with an empty space before and behind it, we read it in its contracted form and it has a whole word meaning.
Example: "you can do it" would be "y c d x"
Like this: y c d x
| Braille | Word | |
| ⠃ | b | but |
| ⠉ | c | can |
| ⠙ | d | do |
| ⠑ | e | every |
| ⠋ | f | from |
| ⠛ | g | go |
| ⠓ | h | have |
| ⠚ | j | just |
| ⠅ | k | knowledge |
| ⠇ | l | like |
| ⠍ | m | more |
| ⠝ | n | not |
| ⠏ | p | people |
| ⠟ | q | quite |
| ⠗ | r | rather |
| ⠎ | s | so |
| ⠞ | t | that |
| ⠥ | u | us |
| ⠧ | v | very |
| ⠺ | w | will |
| ⠭ | x | it |
| ⠽ | y | you |
| ⠵ | z | as |
Examples:
| as | you | like | it |
| ⠵ | ⠽ | ⠇ | ⠭ |
| you | have | more | knowledge |
| ⠽ | ⠓ | ⠍ | ⠅ |
| people | can | go | every | place |
| ⠏ | ⠉ | ⠛ | ⠑ | ⠏⠇⠁⠉⠑ |
| it | is | rather | hot |
| ⠭ | ⠊⠎ | ⠗ | ⠓⠕⠞ |
| we | will | have | no | more |
| ⠺⠑ | ⠺ | ⠓ | ⠝⠕ | ⠍ |
| you | do | very | well | so | we | will | make | you | boss |
| ⠽ | ⠙ | ⠧ | ⠺⠑⠇⠇ | ⠎ | ⠺⠑ | ⠺ | ⠍⠁⠅⠑ | ⠽ | ⠃⠕⠎⠎ |