Definify.com

Definition 2024

⠠

⠠	U+2820, ⠠ BRAILLE PATTERN DOTS-6

← ⠟
[U+281F]

Braille Patterns

⠡ →
[U+2821]

Translingual

The diacritic for the 4th decade of the braille script, now sorted as the 63rd character

Symbol

⠠

(English Braille) Used to capitalize the Braille character that follows.
(English Braille) A prefix marking various letter sequences:
⠠⠽ -ally, ⠠⠝ -ation
(French Braille) Used to indicate an Antoine number. (Compare ⠼.)
⠠⠼ 0, ⠠⠡ 1, ⠠⠣ 2, ⠠⠩ 3, ⠠⠹ 4, ⠠⠱ 5, ⠠⠫ 6, ⠠⠻ 7, ⠠⠳ 8, ⠠⠪ 9
(Chinese Two-Cell Braille) (emphasis)
(IPA Braille) Subscript mark

Usage notes

As a capitalization mark, it is doubled to capitalize an entire word, and tripled to capitalize a longer text.

As a sequence marker, it cannot occur at the beginning of a word. This usage is used in the United States, but has been abolished from Unified English Braille.

Punctuation mark

⠠

(German Braille) ' (apostrophe)
(Chinese Two-Cell Braille) 、 (phrasal comma)

Letter

⠠

(Arabic Braille) ـّ‎‎ (shadda: gemination)
(Bharati braille) visarga -h
(Cantonese Braille) Tone 5
(Vietnamese Braille) tone ◌̣
(Korean Braille) Initial ㅅ ‎(s)

Etymology

Invented by Louis Braille, braille cells were arranged in numerical order and assigned to letters of the French alphabet. Most braille alphabets follow this assignment for the 26 letters of the basic Latin alphabet, or for the equivalents of those letters in a non-Latin script.

The first ten braille letters are ⠁⠃⠉⠙⠑⠋⠛⠓⠊⠚, usually assigned to the Latin letters a–j. The next ten repeat that pattern with the addition of a dot at the lower left, the third ten with two dots on the bottom, and the fourth with a dot on the bottom right. The fifth decade is like the first, but shifted downward. Many languages which use braille letters beyond the basic 26 for simple letters in their script follow an approximation of the English values for the additional letters.