⠤
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Translingual
A character of the braille script, originally used as a hyphen. The diacritic that creates the 3rd decade of the braille script.
Etymology
Invented by Louis Braille, braille cells were arranged in numerical order and assigned to the letters of the French alphabet. Most braille alphabets follow this assignment for the 26 letters of the basic Latin alphabet or, in non-Latin scripts, for the transliterations of those letters. In such alphabets, the first ten braille letters (the first decade: ⠁⠃⠉⠙⠑⠋⠛⠓⠊⠚) are assigned to the Latin letters A to J and to the digits 1 to 9 and 0. (Apart from '2', the even digits all have three dots: ⠃⠙⠋⠓⠚.)
The letters of the first decade are those cells with at least one dot in the top row and at least one in the left column, but none in the bottom row. The next decade repeat the pattern with the addition of a dot at the lower left, the third decade with two dots in the bottom row, and the fourth with a dot on the bottom right. The fifth decade is like the first, but shifted downward one row. The first decade is supplemented by the two characters with dots in the right column and none in the bottom row, and that supplement is propagated to the other decades using the generation rules above. Finally, there are four characters with no dots in the top two rows. Many languages that use braille letters beyond the 26 of the basic Latin alphabet follow an approximation of the English or French values for additional letters.
Punctuation mark
⠤
- (IPA Braille) - (hyphen)
Numeral
⠤
Symbol
⠤
See also
English
Punctuation mark
⠤ (‐)
- - (hyphen)
Usage notes
When words or letters are replaced by ————— or ------ in print, in braille ⠤⠤⠤⠤⠤⠤⠤⠤ is used, with one ⟨⠤⟩ for every letter.
Braille hyphens are used for print slashes in dates, so the date range ⟨10/2–10/7⟩ is written ⟨⠼⠁⠚⠤⠃⠤⠼⠁⠚⠤⠛⟩, with three hyphens.
Derived terms
In the United States:
Symbol
⠤
- Marks the beginning or end of capitalization or emphasis that does not span an entire word.
- (meter) Marks the end of a metrical foot.
Usage notes
Compare the termination sign ⠠⠄, which ends formatting in already hyphenated words.
Metrical use has been abolished in Unified English Braille.
Derived terms
Prefix
⠤
- Renders the print sequence com.
Usage notes
Must come at the beginning of a word, but does not need to be a full syllable, e.g. in come and comb.
Because this cell does not have dots in the top row, it cannot come in contact with punctuation marks, such as a hyphen or apostrophe, as it could be confused for a hyphen.
Abolished in Unified English Braille.
See also
French
Punctuation mark
⠤ (‐)
- The hyphen, ⟨-⟩.
Symbol
⠤ (–)
Contraction
⠤
- The independent word celui.
- The letter sequence com- [+C].
Usage notes
- The sequence com- must appear at the beginning of its word, and must be followed by a consonant letter.
Korean
Punctuation mark
⠤
- the hyphen, ⟨-⟩
- the opening or closing parenthesis, ( ... )
Usage notes
The senses are distinguished by spacing and punctuation: none (hyphen), before (opening parenthesis) and after (closing parenthesis).
Vietnamese
Punctuation mark
⠤ • (‐)
- - (hyphen)
Letter
⠤
- tone ◌̃