Burmese Braille


Burmese Braille is the braille alphabet of languages of Burma written in the Burmese script, including Burmese and Karen. Letters that may not seem at first glance to correspond to international norms are more recognizable when traditional romanization is considered. For example, သ s is rendered th, which is how it was romanized when Burmese Braille was developed ; similarly စ c and ဇ j as s and z.

History

The first braille alphabet for Burmese was developed by Father William Henry Jackson ca. 1918. There was no provision for the voiced aspirate series of consonants, nor for the retroflex, and Jackson provided distinct letters for complex onsets such as ky, hm and for various syllable rimes, with no regard to how they are written in the print Burmese alphabet. These aspects have all been changed, as have several of the letters for the values which were retained. However, some of the old letters, unusual by international standards, remain, such as for င ng and for ီ i.

Charts

Print letters

The letters in print Burmese transcribe consonants and, in syllable-initial position, vowels. The consonants each have a corresponding letter in braille, but the initial vowels in print are in braille all written plus the letter for the appropriate diacritic. The consonant ny has two forms in print which are distinct in braille as well.

Stacked consonants

The stacking of consonants in print is indicated with in braille. That is, Burmese Braille has two viramas, one corresponding to print virama, and one corresponding to stacking. For example, ကမ္ဘာ kambha "world" is written.

Print diacritics

The diacritics in print, which transcribe both vowels and consonants, are rendered as follows in Karen Braille.
Braille
Printျြ်ွှ့◌း
Roman-y--r--w-h--.-:

is used to mark syllable- or word-initial vowels, which have distinct letters in the Burmese print alphabet. For example,

Numbers

Burmese numerals are represented as follows:
1234567890
Braille
Print၁၂၃၄၅၆၇၈၉၀

Punctuation

The following punctuation is specific to Burmese. Western punctuation presumably uses Western braille conventions.
Braille??
Print၍၏၌၎င်း၊။
Roman.@,.