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For foreign material with EBAE transcription, the NBA's Interim Manual for Foreign Language Braille Transcribing, 2002 is in effect. Material within that publication on pp. 69-70 covers accented vowel symbols and breathing marks. This means you'll be following Rebecca's response and using the contraction as opposed to the dot 4 (or dot 6) and the vowel. The contractions listed in the Interim Manual and World Braille Usage are the same.
Carol Greer
My apologies, Susie, as I just read above that you are not using UEB. The Foreign Language Committee will discuss this and we'll post our consensus.
Thanks for your patience,
Carol Greer
Susie,
You need to evaluate whether or not to use non-UEB passage indicators (5 12356 3) to open and (6 5 23456) to close. These code switch indicators are found at the beginning of Section 14: Code Switching in the Rules of UEB, Look up Sections 13.7.2 and 14.3.2 also. These will state that you can omit the non-UEB passage indicators as your Greek is in bold. However, it may be helpful to use the non-UEB passage indicators if your reader is unfamiliar with Greek.
In any case, you will be using the contractions listed on page 186 of World Braille Usage for your acute and grave vowels. Remember, the Greek passage is uncontracted.
There is a NBA Bulletin article that covers breathing marks in Greek titled Transcribing Breathing Marks in Greek: English Context. It was published in the Fall 2016 NBA Bulletin edition, Volume 52, Number 3.
Hope this helps,
Carol Greer
Yes it does. BF 1.16.3 provides the appropriate braille authority policy and guideline in place in the US to disregard UEB 13.2.1. I suggest you place a bold statement in your UEB manual as all of the examples in UEB 13.2.1 need to be interpreted in light of the NOTE being in effect.
The best publications have not been released by BANA. Those publications will be the updated Braille Formats and an updated Provisional Guidance for Transcribing Foreign Language Material in UEB that is currently being worked on by the BANA Foreign Language Task Force.
The next best publications are available through the NBA. The Bulletin article "Multi-line Brackets in Foreign Text" in the Spring 2016 (Volume 52, Number 1) will inform you of information too complex to summarize here. If you send a direct request to my email fingertipbraille@comcast. net, I'll send you the NBA workshop from the Louisville conference entitled "Overview of Foreign Language Transcription". It is unavailable for purchase right now as much of the material is being updated with new Braille Formats references, etc.
To summarize the answers to your questions:
- The Spanish should be uncontracted as you are working with an instructional text. For English text, follow UEB Rules.
- Use the Spanish alphabet symbols found in World Braille Usage, 3rd Edition, for Spanish found on page 201. http://www.perkins.org/international/world-braille-usage.
- Use UEB symbols for foreign punctuation. The new Braille Formats in 1.16.3 will state: Use UEB symbols for inverted punctuation in foreign material.
- You may have Spanish ordinals (o or a) that appear raised from the baseline in print. This is not to be considered the superscript position. (New Braille Formats 10.10.1). Transcribe them as outlined in the Winter 2015-2016 NBA Bulletin article "Numbers and Number Combinations in Foreign Text". See also UEB 6.7.1.
- You can follow material in BF 2011 for spelled out page numbers. (Section 1.13).
- In general, retain typeforms in print.
- Translated sentence pairs are transcribed 1-5, 3-5 with a blank line preceding and following the material. You can refer to Section 4 of the NBA Interim Manual for Foreign Language Braille Transcribing, 2002. Much of this material is in the NBA Workshop and will be in the new Braille Formats.
- Material concerning Vocabulary and Glossary Lists for Foreign Language instructional texts will be included in the new Braille Formats. Much of this material is in the NBA Workshop and follows material in the Interim manual (i.e. use of a colon following a complete entry or subword entry). This information becomes critical if your Spanish book has articles, reflexive pronouns, etc. in the vocabulary and glossary listings.
- Articles are removed from guide words in glossary lists.
- Gloss notes are to be in 7-5 and placed on the line following the material to which its note applies. This is how they were done in Braille Formats 1997, and the method ONLY applies to Gloss notes in Foreign Language instructional texts.
Again, there are numerous print and braille examples in the workshop material.
Carol Greer
The NBA does not keep a data base of individual transcribers for the purpose of making recommendations for service. That would make sense as the organization's purpose is to provide continuing education to all those who prepare braille. I do not know if I can ethically answer your question in this forum.
However, if you post your need in the Private: Message Board found in the Forum listing of Ask an Expert, interested transcribers can respond to your request directly. If you receive no response, feel free to contact me outside the two forums at fingertipbraille@comcast.net. I, of course, have limited contacts whereas the NBA's Private: Message Board is accessible to a wide range of transcribers both inside and outside the US.
Good luck,
Carol Greer
Sharon,
World Braille Usage, Third Edition found on the Perkins internet site has some leads. I searched online with the information given under the heading Mathematics and Science Notation in the Poland section.
http://chezdom.net/mathematicalbraillecodes/ indicates that Poland uses Marburg.
http://www.pharmabraille.com/support/how-to-use-your-pharmabraille-braille-font-set/ has a Help and Support section where you can Ask a Pharmaceutical Braille Font Question.
I got there by searching for Marburg Braille. You'll find other sites if the above doesn't give you what you're looking for.
Start here and let me know if you need further help.
Carol Greer
Greta,
I'll respond with information that I hope you find useful. If you have further questions, please send along a print sample.
BANA's Provisional Guidance for Transcribing Foreign Language Material in UEB, posed on their website as approved May 2015, indicates that Method 4 can be applied to your business card, as I understand your question. Method 4 uses the full braille code of a specific country, in this case Germany. Method 4 requires the transcriber to be fluent in the specific language and to know the braille code for that language.
I am not qualified to transcribe such material.
I can however, point you to the information you need.
From the Provisional Guidance document mentioned above, if the foreign language braille code includes contractions (e.g. German), then there is an option to use or not use contractions, depending on the expected readership of the braille.
From World Braille Usage (WBU), found on the Perkins.org website, there are three contraction grades in Germany, two of which you might consider (both use contractions): Vollschrift, recommended for younger school children and signage, and Kurzschrift recommended for adults and other schoolchildren.
The 8 Vollschrift contractions are listed on p. 182 of WBU. There is no equivalent braille sign for capital punctuation listed in WBU.
p. 46 of WBU refers to organizations that can help you. Braille Standards are set by Authority of the German-Speaking Countries (Brailleschriftkomitee der deutschsprachige, BSKDL). For Literary Notation: Das System der deutschen Blindenschrift, 2005.
If you choose not to use contractions, consult Method 3 in the Provisional Guidance document mentioned above, and we'll go from there if you have further questions.
Good luck,
Carol Greer
The print sample shows that you need information on p. 187 of <i>World Braille Usage. </i>What looks like an apostrophe before the A in the Grrek word you are asking about could either be an elision or a breathing mark. There's no indication that is an elision. Elision is defined as "the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase.
That apostrophe is actually a breathing mark. You have both the spiritus asper (rough breathing dots 125) and the spiritus lenis (smooth breathing mark dots 356) in your print sample. They are mirror images of each other in print, placed above some of the lower case Greek letters in your sample. You'll also see them above the letter, prior to the accent, in some of the Greek words also.
I am unable to Braille this for you because of my current location, but WBU gives you the information you need. (WBU is found on the Perkins.org site). The breathing marks precede the accent signs.
Carol Greer
While pp. 183-187 of World Braille Usage does not list capital or upper case letters, they do exist. An online search of Greek capital letters confirms this, along with the information that capital letters are seldom used. p. 49 of the UEB Rules lists in section 4.5 the capital Greek alpha. This listing would be used for individual Greek letters used in English contexts or English technical materials.
From a previous query, I'm assuming you are using WBU, which does not list information about punctuation. So, for the capital letter in your sample, use the UEB prefix dot 6 as outlined in UEB section 8 along with dot 1 for alpha. If we need to discuss the print mark before your capital letter, please send along a print sample.
Carol Greer
Thanks for the print sample, Dawn. Your student cannot tell from the context that the words you circled are foreign text.
UEB 14.2.4 says to use code switching indicators when the non-UEB braille would be ambiguous and when the nature and extent of the non-UEB braille text cannot be determined by the context or format. The non-UEB word indicator is (45)(12356). For the Greek alphabet information, see pages 185-187 of World Braille Usage at http://www.perkins.org/international/world-braille-usage
You can use an identifier (in this case Greek) when more than one non-UEB braille code is used in a particular text and it is not obvious which one is intended. This is not necessary for your print sample, but I mention it in case there is another foreign language used in your complete text. In that case, look up UEB 14.3.3 and the following rules in section 14.3 that deal with how to use code switching indicators. If you need to go that route, see UEB 14.2.5 about using a transcribers note to alert the student.
Carol Greer
The Cyrillic alphabet is closely based on the Greek alphabet. Under Peter the Great, the forms of letters were simplified, with some appropriate only to Greek being removed. Further unnecessary letters were expunged in 1918, leaving the alphabet as it is found on p. 200 of World Braille Usage (Russian).
Fita was derived from the Greet letter theta, Izhitsa was used to translate the Greek letter upsilon, and the dotted i, as well as yat or jat were letters of the Early Cyrillic alphabet. All of them are no longer part of the Cyrillic alphabet used today.
As these four symbols are not listed in World Braille Usage, if these symbols are merely listed, a transcribers note can explain their omission in braille. However, it they are used in a passage, send along that print sample and we'll look that over next.
Carol Greer
As you know, EBAE is not where transcribers are to look when answering questions like yours, Abby. Or the NBA's Interim Manual for Foreign Language. You need to access World Braille Usage (WBU), which is found on the perkins.org web page, when using Method 3.
Page 201 of WBU lists the Spanish alphabet and punctuation that is used for Spanish throughout the various countries that are listed. The accented Spanish letters and Spanish punctuation for the question mark and exclamation mark are consistent with the example in Rules of UEB 13.6.4, p. 194 that you've mentioned.
In other words you will use (26 ... 26) for the regular and inverted question mark in Spanish; (235 ... 235) for the inverted exclamation marks in Spanish. You will use the accented letters listed on p. 201 of WBU, which are the same ones you would have used out of the Interim Manual when EBAE was active.
So far so good. It does get confusing when you consider other types of punctuation in Spanish. The Spanish period listed in WBU is a dot 3. If your Level 3 Spanish textbook is instructional, for use in the United States, with English elements also, UEB 13.6.4 stares that it is permissible to not use punctuation signs and indicators such as the dot 3 period in Spanish.
Read the entire 13.6 in UEB Rules before transcribing. Consider using UEB punctuation for Spanish parentheses, hyphen, dash, period, etc.
Carol Greer
The Russian, or Cyrillic alphabet, is made up of 33 letters. Each letter can be either capital or small. The letters can also be printed or handwritten.
If you are transcribing in EBAE, the NBA Interim Manual (IM) is in effect and the braille capital indicator (dot 6) must be used in the Russian text. The list of Russian alphabet symbols in the IM matches that of the list in World Braille Usage (WBU). There is no list of Russian punctuation in the IM; English punctuation is used.
If you are transcribing in UEB, it is important to consider the purpose of the material you are translating. If you are transcribing in a situation where Russian is being taught, Method 3 of the Provisional Guidance for Transcribing Foreign Language Material in UEB is to be followed. Follow UEB Section 13.6 and consult WBU. Method 4 would require using the full Russian braille code and you'd need to be fluent in Russian, aware of the Russian braille code.
Assuming you're using Method 3, you have a choice as to what to do with the punctuation (for example the Russian capital, dots 46, listed in WBU). UEB 13.6.4 states that when using foreign code signs (p. 200 of WBU for Russian), one is not required to use the foreign code signs for punctuation. Read the entire UEB 13.6 and look over the entire list of Russian punctuation in WBU before making your decision.
Russian in not one of the languages V1 of Braille 2000 translates. A quick look online does not indicate that V2 does either.
Carol Greer
As your Greek epigraph is within English context, UEB Sections 4 and 14 are indeed the place to look for guidance. UEB Section 4.5 only applies to Greek letters and, as you have pointed out, the epigraph is a passage.
You have also mentioned that Greek breath marks are involved. If you turn to page 200 of the UEB Rules, you'll see a listing of the Greek rough breathing mark. You can find the spiritus asper (rough breathing sign dots 125) and where to place it, as well as the spiritus lenis (smooth breathing sign dots 356) in the section Greek (International) in World Braille Usage, Third Edition. This publication can be found at http://www.perkins.org/international/world-braille-usage. Turn to pages 185-187 for the information you need.
As to code switch indicators, I feel you have a few choices depending on your print sample:
1. UEB 14.2.2 would allow you to not use code switching indicators. You could apply this if you determine the location of the epigraph warrants this approach.
2. You could use the code switch passage indicators that you mentioned in your question. If so, use (3)(5)(23456) to close.
3. UEB 14.3.3 gives you the option of modifying the opening UEB passage indicator by augmenting it with an identifier. You could use the Greek (International) sequence listed on page 204 of UEB Rules. This would be especially appropriate if you use the braille characters for the Greek letters and breath marks from the Greek (International) section of World Braille Usage.Carol Greer
