Polish Braille

Polish Braille (alfabet Braille'a) is a braille alphabet for writing the Polish language. It is based on international braille conventions, with the following extensions:^[1]

Base letter	a	c	e	l	n	s	u	y	z
Derived letter	ą	ć	ę	ł	ń	ś	ó	ż	ź

Polish Braille
Script type	alphabet
Print basis	Polish alphabet
Languages	Polish
Related scripts
Parent systems	Braille Polish Braille

That is, for letters of the first and second decade of the braille script (a, c, e, l, n, s), a diacritic is written as dot 6, and any dot 3 is removed (or, equivalently, is moved to position 6)—that is, the base letter is moved to the fourth decade. For letters of the third decade (u, y, z), which already have a dot 6, the derivation is a mirror image. Ó is derived from u, which is how it is pronounced (also, the mirror image of o is already taken). Several of these conventions are used in Lithuanian Braille.

History

Some form of a Braille alphabet had been adapted to the Polish language by 1957.^[2]

Alphabet

The full alphabet is this:

a	ą	b	c	ć	d	e	ę
f	g	h	i	j	k	l	ł
m	n	ń	o	ó	p	r	s
ś	t	u	w	y	z	ż	ź

Print digraphs in z are written as two letters in braille as well: ⠉⠵ cz, ⠗⠵ rz, ⠎⠵ sz.

Punctuation

,	.   '[3]	;	:	?	!	-   —	@	*	/	\
#		•		%			‰
°	′	″		$	¢		₤		€
©		™

Paired punctuation

... “ ... ”

... ‘ ... ’

... ( ... )

... { ... } (?)[4]

... [ ... ]

... ⟨ ... ⟩

Formatting

(cap)

(l.c.)

(emph.)

External links

• Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine (a detailed account of typesetting Polish Braille)
• Braille Translator online (Conversion of typed text on the Braille characters, full of Polish notation.)