Contraction Dictionary of German Braille

compiled by Vivian Aldridge

approved by the Committee of the Braille Writing Commission of the German-speaking Countries

Previous version 0.2, May/June 2002

Contents

Part 2a: General words sorted by truncation.... 64

More Proper Names

Foreword to the first issue

This work is intended to serve as a reference book for short-letterers who are unsure how to shorten a word or proper name. As for the black script the first Duden more than a hundred years ago, it also wants to contribute to the unification of the typeface.

The target audience is made up of all those who write the German Braille shorthand, whether experts or beginners. Experienced Braille scripters will only want to look up words whose methods of cuts could be controversial. This promotes the unification of "blind spelling".

Beginners, on the other hand, will probably also look for simpler words, even ones where the rules only allow one writing option. But perhaps the word can be found here faster than the rule in the rulebook. And there are no small numbers of people who know little to begin with rules.

The words included were chosen because the rules do not undoubtedly determine the method of reduction, or because they can serve as examples of the use of certain reductions. For some reductions that are not needed at the beginning of the word, there are several examples, which are well distributed in the alphabetical list. For example, you are more likely to think of a listed example of the cut. For an even more rational search, the words can also be found in a second list, in which one searches specifically for the cut in question.

A large proportion of the words come from the rulebook, the "system of German Braille", where their method of reduction is already fixed.

Other words were either "discovered" by myself or sent to me. In this context, I would like to mention in particular the Swiss Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired (SBS), Zurich, which provided its own list of doubts. Dr. Rose-Marie Lüthi Kreibich from St. Gallen also deserves special mention by name for the many words that were sent to her.

For all words that are not to be found in the rulebook, the method of reduction was determined by the committee of the Brailleschriftkommission of the German-speaking countries. Thus, the spellings listed here can be considered "official". At this point, I would like to express my thanks to my colleague and my colleagues on this body for their cooperation.

It is planned to expand the list periodically. Many of the words already collected did not find their way into the first version, because the correct reduction method could not yet be determined. Again and again, further cases of doubt are reported, the methods of reduction must also be defined and the words added to the list.

The content of such a work could be put together and presented in many ways. If the feedback requires it, other options will also be considered. Questions such as:

• Should the entries not also be supplemented by explanations of the method of reduction or references to the relevant rules?
• To what extent do rarely used words and proper names have to be listed?
• Do you want to line up proper names together with the other words or list them separately as now?

Its publication in Braille, in black script (with dots shown) and on the Internet, as well as by relaxing copyright conditions, is intended to ensure the widest possible access to the dictionary.

Vivian Aldridge Basel, May 2002

Introduction

Structure of the dictionary

The dictionary consists of two main parts:

• In Part 1, the words are listed alphabetically.
• In Part 2, the same words are sorted according to the reductions that are eligible.

Each part lists common words and proper names separately.

Examples:

• The word "hierarchy" can be found in Part 1 under H, in Part 2 under the truncation "HERE" (each under "General Words").
• You will not find the word "cheap goods". Presumably you want to know with this word whether the truncation "WAR" can be used - and under this reduction in part 2 you will find the words "toys" and "tobacco products". By comparing them, you can quickly conclude that the discount "WAR" may not be used in "Cheap Goods".

Notes on coding the dot font

If you have the dictionary in printed punctuation or with the abbreviated words in the points shown, you do not need to pay attention to the technical background. However, if you read the book on a braille line, or visually see only ordinary black characters instead of dots, you need to know which shortcharacters the read refer to.

For technical reasons, the initial data were recorded in the coding of the conversion programs of the Swiss Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired (SBS) in Zurich. However, depending on the version, the encoding can also correspond to (small) Eurobraille characters.

On most braille lines in the German-speaking world, the SBS characters will look the same as the shortcharacters to be displayed, but for the most part with an additional dot 7. For example, for the backslash, the points appear 3,4,7, and here it represents the shorthand character with points 3,4.

List 1

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

Z