Shortform
“blind” in braille
Written b-l — 5 letters cut to 2 letters of abbreviation, then written in 2 cells. That is 3 cells saved every time the word appears.
dots 1-2, then dots 1-2-3
Unicode ⠃⠇ — 5 letters in 2 cells
How to recognise it
b-l in two cells, and it carries on into longer words: blinds, blindly, blindness and blindless all keep it. “blindest” does not, because the shortform is not used where a vowel follows it (Rules of Unified English Braille 10.9.3).
Two steps, not one
Abbreviated in letters first, then written in cells. “blind” loses 3 letters — i, n, d — to become bl. Every letter of the abbreviation is then written as itself, one cell each.
| Stage | What it is | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| Spelled out | blind | 5 cells |
| Abbreviated | bl | 2 letters |
| Written | 2 cells |
Longer words that keep it
For “blind” the Shortforms List (Rules of Unified English Braille, Appendix 1) names 38 longer words that keep it, among them blindly ⠃⠇⠇⠽, blindman ⠃⠇⠍⠁⠝, blindmen ⠃⠇⠍⠢, purblind ⠏⠥⠗⠃⠇, blindfish ⠃⠇⠋⠊⠩ and blindfold ⠃⠇⠋⠕⠇⠙. In a word the list does not name, the shortform is still used where it begins the word and no vowel or y follows (10.9.3); anywhere else the word is spelled out. An added s keeps the cells as well: “blinds” is ⠃⠇⠎ (10.9.5).
| Word | In braille | Ending | Cells |
|---|---|---|---|
| blinds | -s | 3 cells | |
| blindly | -ly | 4 cells | |
| blindness | -ness | 4 cells | |
| blindless | -less | 4 cells |
What these 2 cells mean elsewhere
Every cell here has other jobs, which is where misreadings come from:
| Cell | Dots | What it is elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| 1-2 | the letter b; the word “but” standing alone | |
| 1-2-3 | the letter l; the word “like” standing alone |
In a whole book
In a count over the whole of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (26,439 words), this contraction is never written: the word “blind” does not occur in the book. It is one of 24, out of 182, that the story has no use for.
Check your own text
The translator writes “blind” with Grade 2 selected, and the contractions page has all seventy-five.
“blind” in braille as an image
The word as it is actually written: bl in 2 cells, not 5 letters.
