Hungarian Braille

The braille alphabet used to write Hungarian is based on the international norm for the 26 basic letters of the Latin script. However, the letters for q and z have been replaced, to increase the symmetry of the accented letters of the Hungarian alphabet, which are largely innovative to Hungarian braille.^[1][2]

Alphabet

The Hungarian alphabet is:

A Á B C Cs D Dz Dzs E É F G Gy H I Í J K L Ly M N Ny O Ó Ö Ő P (Q) R S Sz T Ty U Ú Ü Ű V (W) (X) (Y) Z Zs

The letters that conform to traditional braille are:

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

i

j

k

l

m

n

o

p

r

s

t

u

v

The accented vowel letters are derived from their base letters through stretching or reflection as follows. The traditional letter for q (which is not part of the basic Hungarian alphabet) has been reassigned to ö, and an unused pattern has been assigned to ü:

	a	e	i	o	ö	u	ü	q
ä	á	é	í	ó	ő	ú	ű

This creates the following symmetrical pattern for the umlauted vowels:

ö	ő
ü	ű

(Ä is not part of the basic Hungarian alphabet.)

The consonant digraphs are derived from their base letters as follows. The traditional letter for z has been replaced, and is used for a parenthesis. As with the accented vowels, the majority of digraphs are created through reflection:

c	g	l	n	t	s	z
cs	gy	ly	ny	ty	sz	zs

This creates the following pattern among the sibilants:

s	sz
z	zs

Punctuation

Unlike English or French Braille, Hungarian Braille has separate opening and closing symbols for both parentheses and quotation marks.

,	.	;	:	-	'	?	!	„     ”	(     )

Formatting

(num.)

(caps)

References