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| Irish Braille | |
|---|---|
| Script type | alphabet |
Print basis | Irish alphabet |
| Languages | Irish |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Braille
|
Irish Braille is thebraille alphabet of theIrish language. It is augmented by specifically Irish letters for vowels withacute accents in print:
⠿é and⠾ú are coincidentally theFrench Braille letters foré andù: They are simply the braille letters of the third decade afterz, assigned to print in alphabetical order.
Irish Braille also uses some of the Grade-1+1⁄2 shortcuts ofEnglish Braille,
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| ch | gh | sh | th | ed | er | st | ing | ar* | ea | con | dis | com† | en | in |
*⠜ only has the valuear in prose. In poetry, it is used to mark a new line, like "/" in print.
†Abolished in Updated Irish Braille (see below)
These shortcuts are not used across elements of compound words. For example, inuiscerian (uisce-rian) "aqueduct",e-r is spelled out, as iss-t intrastomhas (tras-tomhas) "diameter". There are no special braille letters for dotted consonants. The letterh is used instead, as in modern print. A shortcut may be used even when the final consonant is lenited withh;comh, for example, is written⠤⠓com-h.
The only word-sign is the letter⠎s foragus "and".
Traditionally the lettersj k q v w x y z were not part of theIrish alphabet, but apart fromw they have been introduced through English loans, so they occur in Irish Braille. Punctuation is the same as in English Braille.
In 2014, theIrish National Braille and Alternative Format Association approved a new standard, Updated Irish Braille (UIB), designed largely to matchUnified English Braille for ease of use by bilingual braille readers.
UIB uses most of the contractions of UEB, with the exception of the doubled letters bb⠆, cc⠒, ff⠖, and gg⠶. These must be written as⠃⠃,⠉⠉,⠋⠋, and⠛⠛ respectively. The contractions used are as shown above.
A full set of wordsigns has been added:
| Letter | Braille | Word | Letter | Braille | Word |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| b | ⠃ | bíonn | bh | ⠃⠓ | bhíonn |
| c | ⠉ | cathain | ch | ⠡ | chuaigh |
| d | ⠙ | déanamh | dh | ⠙⠓ | dhéanamh |
| e | ⠑ | eile | — | ||
| f | ⠋ | féidir | fh | ⠋⠓ | fhéidir |
| g | ⠛ | gach | gh | ⠣ | gheobhaidh |
| h | ⠓ | halla | — | ||
| l | ⠇ | leis | |||
| m | ⠍ | maith | mh | ⠍⠓ | mhaith |
| n | ⠝ | nuair | — | ||
| o | ⠕ | oíche | |||
| p | ⠏ | píosa | ph | ⠏⠓ | phíosa |
| r | ⠗ | raibh | — | ||
| s | ⠎ | agus | sh | ⠩ | shampla |
| t | ⠞ | tabhair | th | ⠹ | tháinig |
| u | ⠥ | uaireanta | — | ||
| v | ⠧ | véarsa | |||
(Even when a lenited letter requires two cells, it is treated as one letter in Irish.) In addition, the letters⠁a,⠊i,⠯á,⠿é,⠷í, and⠮ó, along with the digraphs⠔in and⠜ar, are Irish words in their own right, and are treated as wordsigns.
The third-decade English wordsignsand,for,of,the, andwith arenot used as wordsigns nor as contractions. The first three are spelled out⠁⠝⠙,⠋⠕⠗, and⠕⠋, while the last two use theth contraction⠹⠑ and⠺⠊⠹. All occurrences of⠯⠿⠷⠮⠾ in UIB text are for vowels with accents.
The only shortform word in UIB isb-r-l⠃⠗⠇ "braille".
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