Tibetan Braille is the

braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are blind, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on embossed paper or by using refreshable braille disp ...

alphabet for writing the

Tibetan language Tibetan language may refer to: * Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard * Lhasa Tibetan, the most widely used spoken dialect * Any of the other Tibetic languages See also * Old Tibetan, the languag ...

. It was invented in 1992 by German socialworker

Sabriye Tenberken Sabriye Tenberken (born 1970) is a German tibetologist and co-founder of the organisation Braille Without Borders. Biography Sabriye was born in Cologne, West Germany. She lost her sight slowly as a child due to retinitis pigmentosa, and her ...

. It is based on

German braille German Braille is one of the older braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are blind, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on emboss ...

, with some extensions from international usage. As in print, the vowel ''a'' is not written. Despite Tibetan and Dzongkha (Bhutanese) using the same alphabet in print, Tibetan Braille differs significantly from

Dzongkha Braille Dzongkha Braille or Bhutanese Braille, is the braille alphabet for writing Dzongkha, the national language of Bhutan. It is based on English braille, with some extensions from international usage. As in print, the vowel ''a'' is not written. De ...

, which is closer to international norms.

Alphabet

Tibetan Braille follows print orthography. (See

Tibetan script The Tibetan script is a segmental writing system (''abugida'') of Indic origin used to write certain Tibetic languages, including Tibetan, Dzongkha, Sikkimese, Ladakhi, Jirel and Balti. It has also been used for some non-Tibetic langua ...

.) This is often a poor match for how words are pronounced. Each syllable is rendered in the following order: :''pre-consonant, superscript consonant, head consonant, subscript consonant, vowel, post-consonant(s)''From email correspondence with

: Single consonants are written without a "a". Only i e o and u are indicated. The order goes like this: :first the pre consonant, this could be a b, m d ' etc. Then the main consonant. After the main consonant the vowel and then the post consonant. If the main consonant has a super or a sub script, an extra letter that indicates the super script or the subscript is put before and after the main consonant. However it has to be placed before the vowel. :If you have a word with all letters possible, it looks as follows: #Pre consonant #superscript #main consonant #sub script #vowel #post consonant #second post consonant :For example: '' bsgrubs'' The invariable consonants are:World Braille Usage
UNESCO, 2013 Several consonants, ''wa, ya, ra, la,'' and ''sa,'' are provided with forms corresponding to the superscript and subscript positions in print: The assignments for ''zh'' and ''z'' also match international conventions, as those letters are pronounced like ''sh'' and ''s''. Several of the assignments which do not match

international braille The goal of braille uniformity is to unify the braille alphabets of the world as much as possible, so that literacy in one braille alphabet readily transfers to another. Unification was first achieved by a convention of the ''International Congre ...

have the values of

German Braille German Braille is one of the older braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are blind, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on emboss ...

: ''ch'' for ''c (ch)'', ''j'' for ''y'' , ''z'' for ''tsh'', ''s'' for ''z'', ''sch'' for ''sh'' , ''ß'' for ''s''. Letters which are not basic to the German alphabet (''c, q, x, y'') have been reassigned. Several of the aspirated consonants (''ch, th, ph'') are equivalent to the corresponding unaspirated consonant with an extra dot in the third row. The short vowel "a" is inherent in the head (main) consonant, and is not written explicitly. When a vowel occurs at the beginning of a word, it is carried by a null consonant ཨ :

Numbers and punctuation

Digits are as in English Braille. Basic punctuation:

References

{{Braille French-ordered braille alphabets Tibetan language 1992 introductions