Inuktitut Braille
| Inuktitut Braille |
|
|---|---|
| Type |
alphabet
|
| Languages | Inuktitut |
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Parent systems
|
Braille
|
|
Print basis
|
Inuktitut syllabics |
Inuktitut Braille is a proposed braille alphabet of the Inuktitut language based on Inuktitut syllabics. Unlike syllabics, it is a true alphabet, with separate letters for consonants and vowels, though vowels are written before the consonants they follow in speech. It was published in 2012 by Tamara Kearney, Manager of Braille Research and Development at the Commonwealth Braille and Talking Book Cooperative. The book ᐃᓕᐊᕐᔪᒃ ᓇᓄᕐᓗ The Orphan and the Polar Bear was the first (and perhaps only) work transliterated into Inuktitut Braille.
Each letter of Inuktitut syllabics is transliterated with two braille cells. The first cell indicated the orientation of the syllabic letter, and the second its shape. Since the orientation of a letter indicates the vowel of a syllable, and shape indicates the consonant, this means that the syllable ki, for example, is written ik. Vowel length, indicated with a diacritic dot in syllabics, is written by adding an extra dot to the consonant letter in braille, so that the syllable kī is effectively written iķ in braille.
The four vowel letters are as follows:
The vowels u and a mimic the orientations of some consonants carrying these vowels, being practically identical to the null-consonant syllables ᐅ u and ᐊ a as well as to ᐳ pu and ᐸ pa.
Vowel letters do not occur alone, but are carried by a null consonant ⠁ to write a vowel-initial syllable. For a long vowel, a dot is added to the null consonant letter, ⠡. Thus the syllables consisting of a vowel only are written:
Consonants follow English Braille as closely as possible. For example, the Latin consonant letter k is ⠅ in braille, and this ⠅ is used for the consonant sound /k/ in Inuktitut Braille as well. ⠅ is used alone for /k/ at the end of a syllable (in syllabics, ᒃ). Syllables beginning with /k/ combine ⠅ with a vowel cell, as follows:
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