The Not-Langblr

I'm aware that Braille is a writing system, not a language. Still, the "Writing-System-blr" doesn't sound nearly as catchy. Anyways, this is just a little side blog for both beginners and experts in Braille. I will be tagging everything according to its level, so you can find what suits you best.

[nordic-language-love]

Introducing a new langblr challenge… Langblr Word of the Day Challenge!

Hi all! I feel like I’ve not been making enough original langblr content lately, so I decided to make a langblr challenge! This challenge is quite simple and quite flexible: it starts on the first of February, and every day for the month has a different word (the word of the day). Your challenge is to use the word in your language learning that day, in whatever capacity you feel like! Here are a couple of ideas:

Translate the word into your target language

Find a synonym and/or and antonym for the word

Write a paragraph (or more) based around the word

Write one sentence containing the word

Learn 5 words related to the word

Create a vocab list based around the word

Search the word on unsplash, find a picture you like and describe it

Read and share an article related to the word/with the word in the title

Listen to a podcast about the word/with the word in the title

Watch an episode of a TV show about the word/with the word in the title

Have a conversation with a native or another learner about the topic

Feel free to interpret the word as literally or as creatively as you like.

Here’s the word list - feel free to brainstorm some ideas ahead of time:

rain

love

memory

time

comfort

desire

flight

fun

song

puzzle

peace

sunshine

truth

curious

freedom

gift

rest

trust

letter

library

forest

create

night

play

high

ghost

ocean

magic

Use the hashtag #langblrwotdchallenge so we can find each other and check out each other’s posts. If you want to tag me too, I would absolutely love that!

[not-langblr]

Wow! I know this would be better suited for, ya know, an actual language. Still, the idea appeals to me. I’m sure I could find some creative way to make a demonstration for Braille...

[linguisticsnerd]

BANA Braille Bits: BANA Braille Bits Episode 3

This episode features an interview with Dr. Robert Englebretson by Dr. Sandra Ruconich, chair of BANA's Outreach Committee. Dr. Englebretson

There is much to be explored in Braille literacy in terms of cognitive science. What parts of the brain is used in reading Braille? How is Braille reading learned? What approaches are taken in representing a language in Braille? What is the impact of contracted Braille in reading and writing, and how can its creation and organization be informed by linguistics?

These and more are the questions I've had the fortune to learn about and wonder while taking Dr. Englebretson's course on braille. Above is a link to an interview with Dr. E - go check out what the professor who organized and revised Braille IPA has to say, both in terms of his personal experience with Braille and his academic approach!

[not-langblr]

How difficult is it for people to learn Braille? Are you opposed to people who aren't visually impaired interacting with you and learning braille?

Hello! So, the answer to your first question really depends on what you mean by “learning braille.” See, a lot of people think of learning braille as just memorizing the order of the dots, or decoding a message. This is pretty easy  to do, and doesn’t require much time or energy. Even though braille isn’t a language, the only way to learn braille effectively is to learn to read and write it, and to practice it and use it effectively. 

As for your second question, I don’t think there is anything wrong with sighted people interacting with me or learning braille. In fact, I celebrate it! The more able-bodied people learn and become accustomed to disability and accessibility, the better. There are even job positions for braille transcribers that go unfilled, simply because braille isn’t widely taught. I know I don’t post on here often, but I started this blog as a way to increase awareness and promote braille learning for all.

Thanks for the questions, anon. Hope that helps!

[confessionsofalanguagenerd]

language learners:

“ah shit wrong keyboard”

[not-langblr]

This, but with UEB and 8 dot braille.

[yournewkeyboard]

“Picht Braille Typewriter ca. 1920″ via u/EkriirkE on Reddit.

Imgur album.

Also video of this baby in action:

[aki-no-arashi]

Japanese Braille (and why it’s easier than written Japanese)

Okay, so I thought I’d write a post about a topic that’s really close to my heart, being a Legally Blind person: Japanese Braille. 

There are 1.64 million people in Japan with an Uncorrectable Vision Impairments, 187,000 of which are listed as Blind.

Japanese Braille sounds really difficult, but in reality it’s not actually that hard! Especially once you get a few hundred Kanji in, learning Japanese Braille is honestly super simple. 

First of all, a note: Japanese Braille (99% of the time, at least) is completely phonetic; there’s no differentiation between Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji like there is in Written Japanese.

Additionally, it follows really basic patterns; with the exception of a few Punctuation-type characters, you basically only have to learn 21 basic pieces, as everything else follows basic patterns beyond that. 

First off, the vowels: 

All other Syllables use these same Vowels, in the same places

Following this, there comes all of the Consonants

Note that the vowels are in the exact same spot as in the AIUEO characters, just with an added mark for the Consonant.

Here is probably a good place to point out: Dakuten is marked by a single dot on the middle of the right side of the cell, placed BEFORE the character that gets changed by the Dakuten (Handakuten is the same, except the dot was lowered to the bottom right of the cell)

You’ll note that this brings us up to 14 characters…. where are all the rest?

If you’re observant, you’ll note that Ya, Yu, Yo, and Wa and (W)o are missing from the chart here. That’s because these 5 characters break the rules, just a little bit.

(Note that the Wi & We characters are only there for Ancient Japanese; don’t worry if you never learned them before, they’re gone from Japanese now)

Note that the -y- character there is placed BEFORE another consonant to make it a _y_ version of it (i.e. put it before Ka to make Kya), and that the -w- character is used to make all the irregular Little Characters (i.e. put it before Ha and you’ll get Fa).

There’s 2  more characters to learn, and they’re pretty easy. 

They’re made for doubling consonants, and doubling vowels respectively

For example, putting a Sokuon before Ka makes Kka, and a Chouon AFTER A makes Aa

Anyways, that covers all the fundamentals of Japanese Braille, hopefully enabling even more people to make Blind Literacy possible, in an entire other language!

[ps-im-blind]

Hey guys! So... I did a thing...

After talking about Braulle so much, I kind of got into "braille nerd" mode...

I started a langblr...for Braille!

And before anyone says anything,yes, I am aware that Braille is not a language, so I decuded to call it the "Not-Langblr." Im starting to put up Braille tutorials, lessons, fun facts, cool tricks...all the things, and now it is complete! So if anyone is interested, you can follow @not-langblr for all that stuff.

[saltiestgempearl]

Wait, why is Braille not a language? If it has its own grammar and syntax, isn’t it just as much a language as something like ASL?

[not-langblr]

Well, while Braille does have special rules, they are rules for how to write, bot how to speak. Braille is based on transcription, not translation. Its more similar to how closed captions work than sign language. Also, even though braille does have its own rules, they aren’t gramatical, and sentences aren’t any different from how you would read them in English.

[not-langblr]

Literary Braille Alphabet: Intro

So, there are a bunch of books and diagrams out there that show the braille alphabet, so there's nothing in this post (or ithers in this series) that you couldn't just look up yourelf. Still, I want to share this step-by-step on the braille alphabet, in case anyone feels like they need it.

So first we need to go over what Braille is and how it is structured.

Braille is structured into cells. Each cell has 6 dots, with 3 rows of 2 dots each. You could think of it kind of like a standard Lego block.

If you want to follow along an "make" the letters, there are many methods you coukd use.

1. Grid paper: you can fill in the squares eitht a pencil in the same pattern as the cells.

2. Egg carton: if you cut out a 2 by 3 portion of an egg carton, you can place stones, rubber balls, plastic or actual eggs in the same pattern.

3. Braille Scren Imput: The best way to learn braille is not only recognizing the oatterns, but also practicing braille writing! If you have an iPhone, you can try using VoiceOver's Braille Screen imput.

And now you're ready to start!

PS: All the other literary braille tutorials and such on this blog are tagged #lit braille

Enjoy!

[ps-im-blind]

What is the difference between Grade 1 or Grade 2 braille?

Glad you asked!

If you’ve ever watched Molly Burke’s video on Braille, then you know the difference between “contracted” and “uncontracted” Braille. Basically, the “uncontracted” is called Grade 1, because it only really consists of the alphabet.

Example: the word “archer” would be spelled A-R-C-H-E-R 

With contracted Braille (Grade 2), you still use the alphabet, but words are spelled according to the groupings of the letters. 

Continuing with the “archer” example: it would be spelled AR-CH-ER. 

Contracted Braille is a bit more complicated, since some words/groupings have their own symbols. For those of you who know the structure of the letters, the word “the” for instance, has the dot structure of a “z”-- only backwards. A backwards “y” is the symbol for “and” and can be used in combination. 

Example: 

(Grade 1) T-H-E B-A-N-D P-L-A-Y-E-D A S-O-N-G. 

(Grade 2) THE B-AND P-L-A-Y-ED A S-ONG. 

And not to mention, some words have their own contractions. “As” is a “z,” “good” is “gd,” even braille is “brl.” 

Example: 

(Grade 1): The band was great!

(Grade 2) The b-and was (as a lowered g) grt! 

Sorry if I went a little “braille nerdy” there. I know it’s a bit confusing. But I think a lot of people mistake “not being a language” to “just being a direct copy of print writing structure with no special grammar or rules.”

[joaniam]

I read this and my mind immediately went ‘omg it’s official chatspeak’

I guess Grade 2 braille would take up less room then?

Is Grade 2 the reason the braille labels on building labels (room numbers/room names etc) don’t match up one to one with the latin alphabet labels? Or are there other reasons?

[ps-im-blind]

That’s exactly why! Good observation! Most people don’t notice that.

[mevima]

There are also specific Braille characters to signify that the next character is a number or a capital letter, which could be why it doesn’t match up one to one.

So instead of S-T-A-I-R-S it might read (capital)-S-T-A-I-R-S even if it’s still Grade 1, and instead of R-M 1-0-7 it might read (capital)-R-M (number)-1-0-7.

[ps-im-blind]

Also true! Also, there are indicators for things like ALL CAPS (it’s just 2 capital signs) or for bold, italics, or script/cursive.

[tinfoil-catholic]

???? Cursive Braille?

[ps-im-blind]

Well, but it’s not for the same reason that sighted people use it.

See, when a sighted person uses cursive, it’s because they learned to write and read that way. It’s really no different than learning a new handwriting style, really. For Braille purposes, it’s mainly used for translation. For example, in a science or history textbook, you might have all the vocabulary terms bolder and the important concepts italicized. In rare cases, you may even have a “handwriting” type font

Or something like this

For my VIPs, it says “or something like this” in the curly font.

For this, the “script indicator” is used so that VIPs can still identify changes in font the same way a sighted person would. You won’t find anyone who writes in “cursive Braille” or can read “cursive Braille” because it’s the same a normal Braille but with the indicator at the beginning and end. As stated before, it’s more about translation/transcription accuracy.

[tinfoil-catholic]

Oh im sorry haha I understood what it would be used for, the words "cursive braille" is just not something I would have thought of. Kind of hard to have dots connected to each other, it defeats the purpose of braille i would think then.

[she-is-amused]

So when I was a kid (like, 10 or so) I tried to learn to read Braille. I had this little alphabet chart of the Braille symbols, and I would write things out in Braille (by pressing the symbols into notebook paper backwards and then flipping the page over and feeling the raised parks) to memorize the symbols. I thought I was doing alright with it, but every time I tried to read one of those little plaques with Braille it didn’t really make any sense, so I gave up.

Now I can be at peace within my failure. lol

[ps-im-blind]

Responding to @she-is-amused because that post got a little long, and I don’t want to make it longer. But that’s so cool! Fun fact, the method you used is the same method Louis Braille used when he first invented Braille (probably different paper, but whatever). And it’s still very widely used, especially in underdeveloped countries or places where using a brailler would be impractical. It’s called a slate and stylus, and it looks a like this

[ID: A metal Braille slate with a Reizen stylus next to it. The slate has a notecard inserted.]

There is no ink in the pen, obviously, but the little slots in the slate are where the Braille is pressed, also backwards, and then the paper is taken out and read as normal.

[not-langblr]

For anyone who ever needs a URB reference chart...here it is!

[historical-nonfiction]

The Man Who Enabled Millions To Read

Louis Braille began losing his sight at three years old, due to an accident with a toy that struck him in the eye and which became infected and spread to his other eye. By age five, Louis was completely blind. It was 1812 and there was nothing that medicine could do for either eye.

He was lucky though and was able to attend one of the first blind schools in the world, the Royal Institution for Blind Youth in Paris. There, Louis was exposed to the “night writing” method invented by Captain Charles Barbier of the French Army. It was a series of dashes and dots intended to be read by soldiers when putting on a light might be dangerous. But the night writing system was rather complicated and difficult to use. It did, however, inspire Louis to try and make a better system on his own. By the time Louis was 15 years old, he had trimmed Barbier’s 12 dots into six and had found 63 ways to use a six-dot cell in an area no larger than a fingertip. Braille, the system still used around the world, had been born.

Just to finish off Louis’ story – his life did not end at age 15! He published his own system in 1829 and added symbols for both mathematics and music. He went on to have a number of publications about the new reading and writing system, and in 1833, Louis was offered a full professorship where he taught history, geometry and algebra. He also became an accomplished cellist and organist. Unfortunately his invention was met with skepticism by the public. It was not even taught at Braille’s alma mater, the Royal Institute. Due to a persistent respiratory illness he was forced to give up teaching and move back to his hometown at age 40.

In 1852, Louis Braille died, just two days after his 43rd birthday. He would never know how widespread his invention would become. Today there are over 250 million people with visual impairments, who are able to access the written word thanks to Louis Braille.

[not-langblr]

A little history of Braille, for those who are curious...