Mandarin Braille

Mandarin Braille represents the sounds of the language rather than the characters. It is written from left to right in horizontal lines running from top to bottom. Each syllable is made up of three Braille letters: one for the initial, one for the final and one for the tone, though the tones marks are rarely used. Words are separated by spaces. Where there is no possibility of confusion, some initials are written in the same way, for example g and j, and h and x.

Diagram showing braille notation for Mandarin phonemes

Further information

Wikipedia (2008) Mandarin linguistics. [accessed 19/09/08].

Acknowledgments

Ager, S. (n.d.) Braille for Chinese. [accessed 19/09/08].
Aldridge, V. (n.d.) How is Chinese written in Braille? [accessed 19/09/08].

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