Russian Braille

Russian Braille is the braille alphabet of the Russian language. With suitable extensions, it is used for languages of neighboring countries that are written in Cyrillic in print, such as Ukrainian and Mongolian. It is based on the Latin transliteration of Cyrillic, with additional letters assigned idiosyncratically. In Russian, it is known as the Braille Script.Template:EfnTemplate:Cn

Alphabet

The Russian Braille alphabet is as follows:

Print	а a	б b	в v	г g	д d	е e, ye	ё yo	ж zh	з z	и i	й y
Braille	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell
Print	к k	л l	м m	н n	о o	п p	р r	с s	т t	у u	ф f
Braille	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell
Print	х kh	ц ts	ч ch	ш sh	щ shch	ъ ”	ы y	ь ’	э e	ю yu	я ya
Braille	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell

The adaptation of Template:Bc q to ч Template:IPA and Template:Bc x to щ Template:IPA is reminiscent of the adaptation in Chinese pinyin of q to Template:IPA and x to Template:IPA.

Contractions are not used.

Obsolete letters

The Russian braille alphabet, ca 1900

The pre-Revolutionary alphabet, reproduced at right from an old encyclopedia, includes several letters which have since been dropped. In addition, the letter э is shown with a slightly different form.

Print	ѳ th	і i	ѣ ě	э è
Braille	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell

Although obsolete in Russian Braille, these letters continue in several derivative alphabets.

Punctuation

Single punctuation:

Print	,	.	?	!	;	:	-	—
Braille	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell

Paired punctuation:Template:Citation neededTemplate:Fix

Print	« ... » (outer quote)	„ ... “ (inner quote)	( ... )	[ ... ]
Braille	Template:Braille cell...Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell...Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell...Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell...Template:Braille cell

Formatting

italics	capital	number	column
Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell

Columns marked with Template:Bc are shown in the braille-chart image in the box, above right.

Numbers and arithmetic

Numbers are the letters a–j introduced with Template:Bc, as in other alphabets. Arithmetical symbols are as follows. The lowered g used for parentheses in prose becomes an equal sign in arithmetic, where a symmetrical pair of parentheses is used instead:

Print	+	−	×	·	:	=
Braille	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell

Print	<	>	(	)	√	%
Braille	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell

Arithmetical symbols are preceded but not followed by a space, with the exception of the multiplication dot. For example:

Template:Bc

6 × 7 : 14 = 3

Template:Bc

3 · (9 − 7) = 6

Template:Bc

$\sqrt{10000}<101$

Extensions for other languages

Template:Anchor In print, many languages of the ex–Soviet Union are written in Cyrillic alphabets derived from the Russian alphabet by adding new letters. Their braille alphabets are similarly derived from Russian Braille. The braille assignments for the letters found in Russian print are the same as in Russian Braille. However, there is no international consistency among the additional letters, apart from Template:Bc і, which is used in Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Kazakh – and even then, Kyrgyz uses Template:Bc for ң (ŋ), and it might be that Tajik uses it for қ (q). Generally not all of the Russian letters are used, except perhaps in Russian loans. Punctuation and formatting, as far as they are attested, agree with Russian Braille, though Kazakh Braille is reported to use the Russian arithmetical parentheses Template:Bc.

Ukrainian Braille

Template:Main Ukrainian has the additional letters і, ї, є, ґ. The є is the mirror image of old Russian э, while і is the old Russian і (that is, it is the mirror image of й, making it the same as French/English y), and ї is old Russian ѣ.

Print	є	ґ	і	ї
Braille	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell

Unesco (2013) was unable to verify these values.

Belarusian Braille

Template:Main Belarusian has the additional letters і and ў. They are the mirror images of й and у.Template:Unreliable source?

Print	і	ў
Braille	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell

Unesco (2013) was unable to verify these values.

Kazakh Braille

Template:Main Kazakh has the additional letters ә, ғ, қ, ң, һ, ө, ү, ұ, і.

Print	ә	ғ	қ	ң	ө	ү	ұ	һ	і
Braille	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell

See Kazakh alphabets#Correspondence chart for the whole braille alphabet aligned with the Cyrillic.

Kyrgyz Braille

Template:Main Kyrgyz has a subset of the Kazakh letters, ң, ө, ү, but with completely different braille values from the languages above:

Print	ң	ө	ү
Braille	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell

See Kyrgyz alphabets#Correspondence chart for the whole braille alphabet aligned with the Cyrillic.

Mongolian Braille

Template:Main Mongolian has ө, ү, but with different braille assignments again:

Print	ө ö	ү ü
Braille	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell

These are two of the obsolete Russian Braille letters. The Mongolian vowel ө (ö) is coincidentally similar in print to the old Russian consonant ѳ (th), and takes the latter's braille assignment; the Mongolian vowel ү (ü) takes the assignment of the old Russian vowel yat.

See Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet for the whole alphabet aligned with Cyrillic.

Additional alphabets

Unesco reported additional braille adaptations of Cyrillic in 1990, for Tajik, Turkmen and Uzbek, but was not able to confirm them by 2013. The additional letters in the report are shown here, but like those of Ukrainian and Belarusian, they are unverified and should be treated with caution.

Tajik Braille

Tajik

Print	ғ	ӣ	қ	ӯ	ҳ	ҷ
Braille	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell

Turkmen Braille

Turkmen

Cyrillic	ә	җ	ң	ө	ү
Latin	ä	j	ň	ö	ü
Braille	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell

Uzbek Braille

Uzbek

Cyrillic	ғ	қ	ў	ҳ
Latin	[[gTemplate:Okina]]	q	[[oTemplate:Okina]]	h
Braille	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell	Template:Braille cell

See also

A sample of Moon type in various languages including Russian.

• Moon type is a simplification of the Latin alphabet for embossing. An adaptation for Russian-reading blind people has been proposed.