Shortform
“children” in braille
Written c-h-n — 8 letters cut to 3 letters of abbreviation, then written in 2 cells. That is 6 cells saved every time the word appears.
dots 1-6, then dots 1-3-4-5
Unicode ⠡⠝ — 8 letters in 2 cells
How to recognise it
Eight letters in two cells, and the first is the ch sign rather than a c. That cell alone is the word “child”, so “child” and “children” differ by exactly one cell — the tidiest pair on the list.
Two steps, not one
Abbreviated in letters first, then written in cells. “children” loses 5 letters — i, l, d, r, e — to become chn. Then it contracts again: ch is a single cell, which is how 3 letters of abbreviation fit into 2 cells.
| Stage | What it is | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| Spelled out | children | 8 cells |
| Abbreviated | chn | 3 letters |
| Written | 2 cells |
Longer words that keep it
For “children” the Shortforms List (Rules of Unified English Braille, Appendix 1) names 9 longer words that keep it, among them godchildren ⠛⠕⠙⠡⠝, lovechildren ⠇⠕⠧⠑⠡⠝, stepchildren ⠌⠑⠏⠡⠝, brainchildren ⠃⠗⠁⠔⠡⠝, grandchildren ⠛⠗⠯⠡⠝ and children'swear ⠡⠝⠄⠎⠺⠑⠜. In a word the list does not name, the shortform is still used unless a vowel or y follows it (10.9.3). An added s keeps the cells as well: “childrens” is ⠡⠝⠎ (10.9.5).
What these 2 cells mean elsewhere
Every cell here has other jobs, which is where misreadings come from:
| Cell | Dots | What it is elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| 1-6 | the letters ch inside a word, and the word “child” alone | |
| 1-3-4-5 | the letter n; the word “not” standing alone |
In a whole book
In a count over the whole of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (26,439 words), this contraction is written 10 times and saves 60 cells. That is 0.17% of everything Grade 2 saves in the book, and ranks it 92nd of the 158 contractions used.
Every one of those is the word “children” itself.
Check your own text
The translator writes “children” with Grade 2 selected, and the contractions page has all seventy-five.
“children” in braille as an image
The word as it is actually written: chn in 2 cells, not 8 letters.
