South African braille

Several braille alphabets are used in South Africa. For English, Unified English Braille has been adopted. Nine other languages have been written in braille: Afrikaans, Ndebele, Sesotho, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, and Zulu.^[1] All print alphabets are restricted to the basic Latin alphabet, with diacritics in some cases; the braille alphabets are likewise basic braille with additional letters to render the diacritics.

Basic braille alphabet

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

i

j

k

l

m

n

o

p

q

r

s

t

u

v

w

x

y

z

The Nguni languages – Ndebele, Swazi, Xhosa, and Zulu – have no diacritics and will not be discussed further. The braille diacritics are shared by South African languages and are described in the sections that follow.

Punctuation for all South African braille alphabets is as in English Braille.

Afrikaans Braille

Afrikaans Braille
Script type	alphabet
Print basis	Afrikaans alphabet
Languages	Afrikaans
Related scripts
Parent systems	Braille South African Afrikaans Braille

Afrikaans has braille cells for acute, ⠈; grave, ⠘⠡; circumflex, ⠘; and diaeresis, ⠰:

⠈⠁ á, ⠈⠑ é, ⠈⠊ í, ⠈⠕ ó, ⠈⠥ ú, ⠈⠽ ý

⠘⠡⠁ à, ⠘⠡⠑ è

⠘⠑ ê, ⠘⠊ î, ⠘⠕ ô, ⠘⠥ û

⠰⠑ ë, ⠰⠊ ï, ⠰⠕ ö, ⠰⠥ ü

Sesotho and Tswana Braille

Sotho Braille Tswana Braille
Script type	alphabet
Print basis	Sesotho alphabet Tswana alphabet
Languages	Sesotho, Northern Sotho, Tswana
Related scripts
Parent systems	Braille South African Sotho Braille

Sesotho and Tswana treat the caron (haček) as an acute:

⠘⠑ ê, ⠘⠕ ô, :⠈⠎ š

Venda Braille

Venda Braille
Script type	alphabet
Languages	Venda
Related scripts
Parent systems	Braille South African Venda Braille

Venda has a unique letter, ⠨, for the subscript circumflex, and treats ṅ as acute:

⠨⠙ ḓ, ⠨⠇ ḽ, ⠨⠝ ṋ, ⠈⠝ ṅ, ⠨⠞ ṱ

References

1. Ethnologue 17 reports that Tsonga is also written in braille.

• UNESCO (2013) World Braille Usage, 3rd edition.