| # liblouis: Uncontracted braille table for Yiddish. |
| # |
| # |
| # This file is part of liblouis. |
| # |
| # liblouis is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it |
| # under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as |
| # published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 2.1 of the |
| # License, or (at your option) any later version. |
| # |
| # liblouis is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but |
| # WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of |
| # MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU |
| # Lesser General Public License for more details. |
| # |
| # You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public |
| # License along with liblouis. If not, see |
| # <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. |
| |
| #-license: LGPLv2.1 |
| |
| # Copyright (C) 2024 by Abby Howell <abby.g.howell@gmail.com> |
| |
| #-copyright: 2024, Abby Howell <abby.g.howell@gmail.com> |
| |
| #-index-name: Yiddish |
| #-display-name: Yiddish braille |
| |
| #+language: yi |
| #+type: literary |
| #+dots: 6 |
| #+contraction: no |
| #+grade: 1 |
| #+direction:forward |
| |
| # This table was created by Abby Howell, Matthew Shifrin, and Harris Mowbray |
| |
| #-author: Abby Howell <abby.g.howell@gmail.com> |
| #-author: Matthew Shifrin <matshifrin@aol.com> |
| |
| # Yiddish is a Jewish language written in the Hebrew alphabet, which has |
| # been spoken by Ashkenazic Jewish communities in Eastern Europe and their |
| # descendants for over 1000 years. Although Yiddish is written using the |
| # same alphabet as Hebrew, not all of Unicode characters used in Yiddish |
| # are represented in the Hebrew Braille tables. Additionally, in Hebrew, |
| # the letters are only used to represent consonants, and the vowels are |
| # written with diacritic accent characters and often omitted entirely. In |
| # Yiddish, by contrast, all vowel sounds are represented by letters or |
| # combinations of letters. Because of this, even though the two languages |
| # share an alphabet, they need to use separate Braille tables. |
| |
| # Background: |
| # |
| # This braille table is being proposed by a sighted teacher and a blind student |
| # of Yiddish at the Boston Worker's Circle, who have been working together, along |
| # with a consortium of advisors, to make the language accessible through braille. |
| # |
| # Yiddish was incorporated into unicode two decades ago with a few special characters |
| # and combinations of letters which have unique unicode characters, which are not |
| # represented by the Hebrew Braille table. The result is that, when a blind reader |
| # tries to read a Yiddish text file, many of the characters are not represented, filling |
| # the output with "mystery characters". |
| # This table is needed so that braille reader software will be able to recognize |
| # the unicode characters that represent Yiddish and display them in readable Braille. |
| |
| # This table is informed by and inspired by the Hebrew Braille table, but with Braille |
| # characters assigned to the letters based on the way they are pronounced in Yiddish. |
| |
| # Notable differences with the Hebrew Braille table are as follows: |
| # The letter ayin is used in Yiddish as a vowel "e". We have assigned it dots 15, |
| # overriding the Hebrew's 1246. |
| # The letter vov is used in Yiddish as the vowel "u", and two vovs are the consonant "v". |
| # We assigned the single vov dots 346, overriding Hebrew's 2456, and we assigned |
| # the double-vov dots 1236. |
| # The second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, beys, can be pronounced like a "b" or like a "v". |
| # In Hebrew Braille, the letter is assigned dots 1236, and when it has a dagesh (a dot |
| # in the middle of the letter representing that it's pronounced as a stop), it gets dots 12. |
| # In Yiddish, this letter is used to represent the sound "b" in most cases, and when it |
| # is used to represent the sound "v" it is written with a "rafe" which is a line |
| # above the letter (the rafe is not generally used in Hebrew). So we have assigned the |
| # unmarked beys the dots 12, and the beys with rafe (called "veys" in Yiddish) the dots 2456. |
| # There are a handful of special letter combinations that are used in Yiddish to represent |
| # dipthongs (combination vowels). The letters vov-yud are used to represent the sound "oy" and |
| # we've assigned that combo dots 246. The letters yud-yud are used to represent the sound "ey" |
| # and we've assigned them dots 26. The letters yud-yud-pasekh represent the sound "ay" and |
| # we've assigned them dots 356. |
| # For the letter alef with pasekh, used in Yiddish to represent the vowel "a", we've assigned |
| # dots 12346. For the letter alef with komets, used in Yiddish to represent the sound "o", we've |
| # selected dots 12356. |
| |
| # In the process, we've relied on a consortium of experts for advice, including: |
| # - Mark David, a board member of the League for Yiddish, who was involved in the |
| # effort to incorporate Yiddish into Unicode over 20 years ago. He is the force behind |
| # UYIP.org, a website and listserve for Understanding Yiddish Information Processing. |
| # - Harry Bochner, a linguist and software engineer who co-authored the |
| # Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary |
| # - Caryn Navy, a braille expert who works at Duxbury Systems |
| # - Harris Mowbray, a software engineer with experience creating Braille tables |
| # for other languages |
| # - Daniel Carkner, a (sighted) Yiddish speaker who also reads UEB Braille |
| |
| # The final mapping of Yiddish letters to Braille characters was decided by |
| # Matthew Shifrin after a semester of learning to read Yiddish with various |
| # draft Braille tables. The final map is as follows: |
| # |
| # shtumer alef א 1 ⠁ |
| # pasekh alef אַ 12346 ⠯ |
| # komets alef אָ 12356 ⠷ |
| # beys ב 12 ⠃ |
| # veys בֿ 2456 ⠺ |
| # giml ג 1245 ⠛ |
| # daled ד 145 ⠙ |
| # hey ה 125 ⠓ |
| # vov ו 346 ⠬ |
| # tsvey vovn װ 1236 ⠧ |
| # vov yud ױ 246 ⠪ |
| # zayin ז 1356⠵ |
| # khes ח 1346 ⠭ |
| # tes ט 2345 ⠞ |
| # yud י 245 ⠚ |
| # tsvey yudn ײ 26 ⠢ |
| # pasekh tsvey yudn ײַ 356 ⠴ |
| # kof כּ 13 ⠅ |
| # khof כ 16 ⠡ |
| # lamed ל 123 ⠇ |
| # mem מ 134 ⠍ |
| # nun נ 1345 ⠝ |
| # samekh ס 234 ⠎ |
| # ayin ע 15 ⠑ |
| # pey פּ 1234 ⠏ |
| # fey פֿ 124 ⠋ |
| # tsadik צ 2346 ⠮ |
| # kuf ק 12345 ⠟ |
| # reysh ר 1235 ⠗ |
| # shin ש 146 ⠩ |
| # sin שׂ 156 ⠱ |
| # tof תּ 1256 ⠳ |
| # sof ת 1456 ⠹ |
| |
| # Braille indicators |
| numsign 3456 number sign, just a dots operand |
| |
| capsletter 6 |
| begcapsword 6-6 |
| endcapsword 6-3 |
| |
| # literary forms of the decimal digits |
| include litdigits6Dots.uti |
| |
| # display/passthrough for unicode braille |
| include braille-patterns.cti |
| |
| # include the hebrew braille table |
| include he-IL.utb |
| |
| include en-chardefs.cti All character definition opcodes |
| |
| |
| # YIDDISH |
| |
| punctuation \x05BF 36 # HEBREW POINT RAFE |
| letter \x05D0 1 # YIDDISH LETTER SHTUMER ALEF (silent letter) |
| letter \xFB2E 12346 # YIDDISH LETTER PASEKH ALEF (a) |
| letter \xFB2F 12356 # YIDDISH LETTER KOMETS ALEF (o) |
| letter \xfb31 12 # YIDDISH LETTER BEYS WITH DAGESH (b) |
| letter \xFB4C 2456 # YIDDISH LETTER VEYS WITH RAFE (v) |
| letter \x05d1 12 # YIDDISH LETTER BEYS (b) |
| letter \x05D2 1245 # YIDDISH LETTER GIML (g) |
| letter \x05D3 145 # YIDDISH LETTER DALED (d) |
| letter \x05D4 125 # YIDDISH LETTER HEY (h) |
| letter \x05D5 346 # YIDDISH LETTER VOV (u) |
| letter \xfb35 346 # YIDDISH LETTER MELUPM VOV (u) |
| letter \x05F0 1236 # YIDDISH LIGATURE TSVEY VOVN (v) |
| letter \x05F1 246 # YIDDISH LIGATURE VOV YUD (oy) |
| letter \x05D6 1356 # YIDDISH LETTER ZAYIN (z) |
| letter \x05D7 1346 # YIDDISH LETTER KHES (kh) |
| letter \x05D8 2345 # YIDDISH LETTER TES (t) |
| letter \x05D9 245 # YIDDISH LETTER YUD (i) |
| letter \xfb1d 245 # YIDDISH LETTER KHIRIK YUD (i) |
| letter \x05F2 26 # YIDDISH LIGATURE TSVEY YUDN (ey) |
| letter \xFB1F 356 # YIDDISH LIGATURE PASEKH TSVEY YUDN (ay) |
| letter \xFB3B 13 # YIDDISH LETTER KOF (k) |
| letter \x05DB 16 # YIDDISH LETTER KHOF (kh) |
| letter \x05DA 16 # YIDDISH LETTER LANGER KHOF (kh) |
| letter \x05DC 123 # YIDDISH LETTER LAMED (l) |
| letter \x05DE 134 # YIDDISH LETTER MEM (m) |
| letter \x05DD 134 # YIDDISH LETTER SHLOS MEM (m) |
| letter \x05E0 1345 # YIDDISH LETTER NUN (n) |
| letter \x05DF 1345 # YIDDISH LETTER LANGER NUN (n) |
| letter \x05E2 15 # YIDDISH LETTER AYIN (e) |
| letter \xFB44 1234 # YIDDISH LETTER PEY WITH DAGESH (p) |
| letter \xFB4E 124 # YIDDISH LETTER FEY WITH RAFE (f) |
| letter \x05E4 124 # YIDDISH LETTER FEY (f) |
| letter \x05E3 124 # YIDDISH LETTER LANGER FEY (f) |
| letter \x05E6 2346 # YIDDISH LETTER TSADIK (ts) |
| letter \x05E5 2346 # YIDDISH LETTER LANGER TSADIK (ts) |
| letter \x05E7 12345 # YIDDISH LETTER KUF (k) |
| letter \x05E8 1235 # YIDDISH LETTER REYSH (r) |
| letter \x05E9 146 # YIDDISH LETTER SHIN (sh) |
| letter \xFB2B 156 # YIDDISH LETTER SIN (s) |
| letter \xFB4A 1256 # YIDDISH LETTER TOF (t) |
| letter \x05EA 1456 # YIDDISH LETTER SOF (s) |
| |
| always \x05D5\x05D9 246 # YIDDISH LETTER VOV YUD (oy) |
| always \x05D5\x05D5 1236 # YIDDISH LETTER VOV VOV (v) |
| always \x05D9\x05D9 26 # YIDDISH LETTER YUD YUD |
| always \x05F2\x05B7 356 # YIDDISH LETTER PASEKH TSVEY YUDN WITH SEPARATE PASEKH |
| always \xFB1F 356 # YIDDISH LETTER PASEKH TSVEY YUDN |
| always \x05D1\x05BF 2456 # YIDDISH LETTER VEYS WITH SEPARATE RAFE |
| always \xFB4C 2456 # YIDDISH LETTER VEYS WITH SEPARATE RAFE |
| always \x05DB\x05BC 13 # YIDDISH LETTER KAF WITH SEPARATE DAGESH |
| always \xFB3B 13 # YIDDISH LETTER KAF WITH DAGESH כּ |
| always כּ 13 # YIDDISH LETTER KAF WITH SEPARATE DAGESH כּ |
| always פּ 1234 # YIDDISH LETTER PEY WITH SEPARATE DAGESH פּ |
| always פּ 1234 # YIDDISH LETTER PEY WITH DAGESH פּ |
| always \x05E4\x05BC 1234 # YIDDISH LETTER PEY WITH SEPARATE DAGESH פּ |
| always פֿ 124 # YIDDISH LETTER FEY WITH RAFE פֿ |
| always \x05E4\x05BF 124 # YIDDISH LETTER FEY WITH SEPARATE RAFE פֿ |
| always \x05E9\x05C2 156 # YIDDISH LETTER SIN WITH SEPARATE DOT |
| always שׂ 156 # YIDDISH LETTER SIN WITH DOT שׂ |
| always שׂ 156 # YIDDISH LETTER SIN WITH SEPARATE DOT שׂ |
| always \x05EA\x05BC 1256 # YIDDISH LETTER TOF WITH SEPARATE DAGESH תּ |
| always תּ 1256 # YIDDISH LETTER TOF WITH SEPARATE DAGESH תּ |
| always \x05D0\x05B7 12346 # YIDDISH LETTER PASEKH ALEF WITH SEPARATE PASEKH |
| always אַ 12346 # YIDDISH LETTER PASEKH ALEF WITH SEPARATE PASEKH |
| always \x05D0\x05B8 12356 # YIDDISH LETTER KOMETS ALEF WITH SEPARATE KOMETS |
| always אָ 12356 # YIDDISH LETTER KOMETS ALEF WITH SEPARATE KOMETS |
| always \x05D5\x05BC 346 # YIDDISH LETTER MELUPM VOV WITH SEPARATE DAGESH |
| always וּ 346 # YIDDISH LETTER MELUPM VOV WITH SEPARATE DAGESH |
| always \x05D9\x05B4 245 # YIDDISH LETTER KHIREK YUD WITH SEPARATE KHIREK |
| always יִ 245 # YIDDISH LETTER KHIREK YUD WITH SEPARATE KHIREK |
| always ב 12 # YIDDISH LETTER BEYS ב |
| always בּ 12 # YIDDISH LETTER BEYS WITH DAGESH בּ |
| always \x05E2 15 # YIDDISH LETTER AYIN (e) |
| always \x05D5 346 # YIDDISH LETTER VOV (u) |
| |
