| Danish Braille Norwegian Braille Swedish Braille Finnish Braille Greenlandic Braille | |
|---|---|
| Script type | alphabet |
Print basis | Dano-Norwegian alphabet Swedish alphabet |
| Languages | Danish,Norwegian,Swedish,Finnish,Greenlandic |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Braille
|
Scandinavian Braille is abraille alphabet used, with differences in orthography and punctuation, for the languages of the mainlandNordic countries:Danish,Norwegian,Swedish, andFinnish. In a generally reduced form it is used forGreenlandic.
Scandinavian Braille is very close toFrench Braille, with slight modification of some of the accented letters, and optional use of the others to transcribe foreign languages.
The braille letters for the French print vowelsâ, œ, ä are used for the print vowelså, ö/ø, ä/æ of the Scandinavian alphabets. Each language uses the letters that exists in its inkprint alphabet. Thus, in numerical order, the letters are:
Greenlandic Braille uses a subset of these letters,a e f g i j k l m n o p q r s t u v, though the rest of the Scandinavian alphabet is available when needed.
For foreign accented letters,French Braille assignments are used.
Digits are the first ten letters of the alphabet, and numbers are marked by⠼, as inEnglish Braille.
Punctuation differs slightly between each country, but this is unlikely to impede understanding.
| , | . | ' | ? | ! | ; | : | * | - | — | / | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finnish |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | |  |
| Swedish/ Norwegian |  | ||||||||||
| Danish/ Greenlandic |  |
The ellipsis⟨...⟩ is thus⠄⠄⠄.
Finnish⠲ ! is not a copy error. It is the reverse of the⠖ found in all other Nordic countries, though the latter is the + sign in Finnish mathematical notation just as it is in those other countries. Finnish punctuation is used for Swedish text in Finland.
In Swedish Braille, there is also⠸ for the pipe, |, and⠿ for the bullet, •.
| “ ... ” | ‘ ... ’ | ( ... ) | [ ... ] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finnish/ Swedish |  ... | ... |  ... |  ... |
| Norwegian/Faroese | ... | (?) | ||
| Danish/ Greenlandic |  ... | ... |
At least in Norwegian Braille, the braces { ... } are⠠⠷...⠠⠾.
Given the poor coverage, it is not clear how compatible formatting is between countries. (SeeEstonian Braille for formatting in an orthography with similar punctuation to Finnish and Swedish.)
| (digit) | (caps) | (all caps) | (italics) | (bold) | |
| Finnish/ Swedish |  |  | | |  |
| Norwegian | (?) | ... | ... | ||
| Danish/ Greenlandic | |  | | (?) |
In Swedish Braille,⠠⠠ is used to capitalize an entire word, and⠠⠠⠠ to capitalize several words. The sequences⠠⠤ and⠨⠨ are likewise used to italicize and bold several words. The end of any of these is marked with⠱, for example⠠⠠⠠ ...⠱ for caps,⠠⠤ ...⠱ for italics, and⠨⠨ ...⠱ for bold.
Also in Swedish (and perhaps the others), the auxiliary parentheses⠘⠦ ...⠘⠴ are used to add comments that appear only in the braille text, such as a description of a picture in the print text being transcribed.
