⠠

⠠ U+2820, ⠠ BRAILLE PATTERN DOTS-6 ← ⠟ [U+281F] Braille Patterns ⠡ → [U+2821]

Translingual

The diacritic that creates the 4th 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 values for additional letters.

Symbol

⠠

1. (English Braille) Used to capitalize the Braille character that follows.
2. (English Braille) A prefix marking various letter sequences:

   ⠠⠽ -ally, ⠠⠝ -ation

3. (French Braille) Used to indicate an Antoine number. (Compare ⠼.)

   ⠠⠼ 0, ⠠⠡ 1, ⠠⠣ 2, ⠠⠩ 3, ⠠⠹ 4, ⠠⠱ 5, ⠠⠫ 6, ⠠⠻ 7, ⠠⠳ 8, ⠠⠪ 9

4. (Chinese Two-Cell Braille) (emphasis)
5. (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

⠠

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

Letter

⠠

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

See also

(Braille script):  ⠀   ⠁   ⠂   ⠄   ⠈   ⠐   ⠠

⠃   ⠅   ⠆   ⠘   ⠨   ⠰   ⠉   ⠒   ⠤

⠑   ⠡   ⠢   ⠊   ⠌   ⠔

⠇   ⠸   ⠎   ⠱   ⠣   ⠜   ⠪   ⠕

⠋   ⠙   ⠓   ⠚   ⠍   ⠩   ⠥   ⠬   ⠖   ⠲   ⠦   ⠴

⠏   ⠹   ⠧   ⠼   ⠫   ⠝   ⠮   ⠵

⠺   ⠗   ⠞   ⠳   ⠛   ⠭   ⠶

⠟   ⠻   ⠷   ⠾   ⠯   ⠽   ⠿

• Braille eight-dot extensions from ⟨⠠⟩:    ⡠   ⢠   ⣠