Arabic Braille is the braille alphabet for the Arabic language. A unified Arabic Braille code was adopted in the 1950s as part of the move toward international braille. The Conference of Developing and Unifying Arabic Braille Characters met in Saudi Arabia in October 2002. There has been confirmation from several countries that they are using this unified braille code, and other countries are not.
The primary language transcribed: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen. Other Arabic-based alphabets have braille systems similar to Arabic Braille, such as Urdu and Persian Braille, but differ in some letter and diacritic assignments.
Arabic written text is read from right to left, but Arabic Braille is read from left to right, following the international convention. Numbers are also left to right, as they do in printed Arabic.
Letters
Although short-vowel letters are not diacritics in Arabic Braille, they are optional and generally omitted, just as in print Arabic.
Character | Braille | Braille dots |
---|---|---|
ا | ⠁ | 1 |
ب | ⠃ | 12 |
ت | ⠞ | 2345 |
ث | ⠹ | 1456 |
ج | ⠚ | 245 |
ح | ⠱ | 156 |
خ | ⠭ | 1346 |
د | ⠙ | 145 |
ذ | ⠮ | 2346 |
ر | ⠗ | 1235 |
ز | ⠵ | 1356 |
س | ⠎ | 234 |
ش | ⠩ | 146 |
ص | ⠯ | 12346 |
ض | ⠫ | 1246 |
ط | ⠾ | 23456 |
ظ | ⠿ | 123456 |
ع | ⠷ | 12356 |
غ | ⠣ | 126 |
ف | ⠋ | 124 |
ق | ⠟ | 12345 |
ك | ⠅ | 13 |
ل | ⠇ | 123 |
م | ⠍ | 134 |
ن | ⠝ | 1345 |
ه | ⠓ | 125 |
و | ⠺ | 2456 |
ي | ⠊ | 24 |
Ligatures
Character | Braille | Braille dots |
---|---|---|
لا | ⠧ | 1236 |
ى | ⠕ | 135 |
أ | ⠌ | 34 |
إ | ⠨ | 46 |
آ | ⠜ | 345 |
ء | ⠄ | 3 |
ؤ | ⠳ | 1256 |
ئ | ⠽ | 13456 |
ة | ⠡ | 16 |
Diacritical Marks
Diacritical marks are positioned after the letter, except the Shadda which is positioned before the letter
Character | Braille | Braille dots |
---|---|---|
◌َ (Fatha) | ⠂ | 2 |
◌ِ (Kasra) | ⠑ | 15 |
◌ (Damma) | ⠥ | 136 |
◌ً (Fathatan) | ⠆ | 23 |
◌ٍ (Kasratan) | ⠔ | 35 |
◌ٌ (Dammatan) | ⠢ | 26 |
◌ّ (Shadda) | ⠠ | 6 |
◌ْ (Sukun) | ⠒ | 25 |
Numbers
Character | Braille | Braille dots |
---|---|---|
number sign | ⠼ | 3456 |
١ 1 | ⠼⠁ | 3456 1 |
٢ 2 | ⠼⠃ | 3456 12 |
٣ 3 | ⠼⠉ | 3456 14 |
٤ 4 | ⠼⠙ | 3456 145 |
٥ 5 | ⠼⠑ | 3456 15 |
٦ 6 | ⠼⠋ | 3456 124 |
٧ 7 | ⠼⠛ | 3456 1245 |
٨ 8 | ⠼⠓ | 3456 125 |
٩ 9 | ⠼⠊ | 3456 24 |
٠ 0 | ⠼⠚ | 3456 245 |
Punctuation
Character | Braille | Braille dots |
---|---|---|
، comma | ⠐ | 5 |
؛ semi-colon | ⠰ | 56 |
: colon | ⠐⠂ | 5, 2 |
. full stop/period | ⠲ | 256 |
؟ question mark | ⠦ | 236 |
! exclamation | ⠖ | 235 |
“…”, «…» quote | ⠶ … ⠶ | 2356 … 2356 |
(…) parentheses | ⠦ … ⠴ | 236 … 356 |
dash/hyphen | ⠤ | 36 |
long dash or hyphen | ⠤⠤ | 36 36 |
per cent | ⠒⠏ | 25 1234 |
References
Last date updated: October 2015