Korean Braille - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Korean braille is a braille code used for writing the Korean language

Korean language

Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...

. It is not graphically related to other braille

Braille

The Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...

systems found around the world. Instead, it reflects the patterns found in hangul

Hangul

Hangul,Pronounced or ; Korean: 한글 Hangeul/Han'gŭl or 조선글 Chosŏn'gŭl/Joseongeul the Korean alphabet, is the native alphabet of the Korean language. It is a separate script from Hanja, the logographic Chinese characters which are also sometimes used to write Korean...

. It is a combination of initial consonants, vowels, and final consonants. The following charts show the romanization

Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...

as well as the hangul

Hangul

for each of the braille blocks.

Consonants

Consonants have different syllable-initial and -final variants, capturing some of the feel of hangul. The initial and final variants have the same shapes, but are shifted across the braille block. There are two patterns: The consonants that span the width of the block are shifted one space downward when final. Those that don't span the width of the block are on the right side of the block when initial, but on the left side when final.

No consonant occupies more than two rows.

There is no initial version of ng. Initial ieung in hangul is not written in Korean braille. However, the expected form is reserved and may not serve other uses, such as punctuation.

Roman	g	n	d	r	m	b	s	j	ch	k	t	p	h	ng
hangul	ㄱ	ㄴ	ㄷ	ㄹ	ㅁ	ㅂ	ㅅ	ㅈ	ㅊ	ㅋ	ㅌ	ㅍ	ㅎ	ㅇ
initial	⠈	⠉	⠊	⠐	⠑	⠘	⠠	⠨	⠰	⠋	⠓	⠙	⠚
final	⠁	⠒	⠔	⠂	⠢	⠃	⠄	⠅	⠆	⠖	⠦	⠲	⠴	⠶

Vowels

All vowels span the width and height of the block. Because the consonants are specifically syllable initial or syllable final, a syllable that begins with a vowel causes no confusion when written without ieung.

The simpler vowels reflect the symmetries of hangul: the yin-yang pairs a, eo and o, u are related through inversion, and yotization of a, eo, o, u is indicated by reflecting the vowel. The graphically similar hangul letters i and eu are also related by reflection. The w in wa, wo is indicated by making the left side of the block solid, while the i in ui, oe is shown by making the right side solid. However, the diphthongs e, ae and their yotized variants show no such patterns.

Roman	a	ya	eo	yeo	o	yo	u	yu	eu	i	e	ae	ye	wa	wo	oe	ui
hangul	ㅏ	ㅑ	ㅓ	ㅕ	ㅗ	ㅛ	ㅜ	ㅠ	ㅡ	ㅣ	ㅔ	ㅐ	ㅖ	ㅘ	ㅝ	ㅚ	ㅢ
	⠣	⠜	⠎	⠱	⠥	⠬	⠍	⠩	⠪	⠕	⠝	⠗	⠌	⠧	⠏	⠽	⠺

There are also characters for grammatical devices and for punctuation. Numerals are similar to those of other braille systems.

Consonants

Roman

hangul

ㄱ

ㄴ

ㄷ

ㄹ

ㅁ

ㅂ

ㅅ

ㅈ

ㅊ

ㅋ

ㅌ

ㅍ

ㅎ

ㅇ

initial

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final

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Vowels

Roman

yeo

hangul

ㅏ

ㅑ

ㅓ

ㅕ

ㅗ

ㅛ

ㅜ

ㅠ

ㅡ

ㅣ

ㅔ

ㅐ

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Diphthongs

Some diphthongs are represented by two braille blocks.

yae

wae

ㅖ

ㅢ

ㅘ

ㅝ

ㅚ

ㅒ

ㅙ

ㅞ

ㅟ

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There are also characters for different grammatical devices and punctuation. Numerals are similar to those used in other systems.

History

The first braille system for Hangul was developed by Dr. Rosetta Sherwood Hall

Rosetta Sherwood Hall

Rosetta Sherwood Hall was a medical missionary and educator. She lost her U.S. citizenship when she married a Canadian. Dr...

in 1894 and was based on a 4 dot wide by 2 dot high cell, but it was uncomfortable to use.

After the debut of a system, based on the 6-dot, made by Park Du-seong in 1926, there has been a number of revisions. The current form was announced in 1994.

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