Type alphabet Print basis Spanish alphabet Sister systems Portuguese Braille | Languages Spanish, Galician Child systems Guarani Braille | |
Parent systems Braille
French Braille
Spanish Braille | ||
Spanish Braille is the braille alphabet of the Spanish language, both in Spain and in Latin America, and of Galician. It is very close to French Braille, with the addition of a letter for ñ, slight modification of the accented letters, and some differences in punctuation. Further conventions have been unified by the Latin American Blind Union, but differences with Spain remain.
Contents
Alphabet
The French Braille letters for vowels with a grave accent in print, à è ì ò ù, are used in Spanish Braille for print vowels with an acute accent, á é í ó ú. In addition, French ⠻ ï is reassigned to Spanish ñ. Thus, in numerical order, the letters are:
At one point, French ⠺ w was apparently used for Spanish ü, reflecting its pronunciation, and French ⠹ ô (a rotated v) for Spanish w, which is found in foreign words.
Digits
Digits are the first ten letters of the alphabet, and are marked by ⠼, as in English Braille.
Punctuation
Single punctuation:
(The same character is used for a full stop and for an apostrophe, as in Portuguese Braille. Spanish does not use the apostrophe in standard writing, and in Portuguese it is only present in a few fixed phrases.)
Paired punctuation:
Formatting
'Emphasis' may be bold or italic in print.
See Portuguese Braille for a more complete account, much of which is likely to apply to Spanish Braille.
Other languages
The full Spanish Braille alphabet is used for Galician as well. The letter ⠻ for ñ is shared with Basque Braille (which has no additional letters) and with Guarani Braille (which does). It is not, however, used for the languages of the Philippines, which instead use an accent dot of English Braille with n, ⠈⠝, for ñ. (See basic braille.)
Punctuation for Galician and Basque Braille is the same as that of Spanish Braille.