Shortform
“thyself” in braille
Written th-y-f — 7 letters cut to 4 letters of abbreviation, then written in 3 cells. That is 4 cells saved every time the word appears.
dots 1-4-5-6, then dots 1-3-4-5-6, then dots 1-2-4
Unicode ⠹⠽⠋ — 7 letters in 3 cells
How to recognise it
th-y-f: the th sign, then y, then f. It is the -self shape on the older pronoun thy, and its first cell on its own is the word “this”.
Two steps, not one
Abbreviated in letters first, then written in cells. “thyself” loses 3 letters — s, e, l — to become thyf. Then it contracts again: th is a single cell, which is how 4 letters of abbreviation fit into 3 cells.
| Stage | What it is | Cells |
|---|---|---|
| Spelled out | thyself | 7 cells |
| Abbreviated | thyf | 4 letters |
| Written | 3 cells |
Only an added s keeps it
The UEB Shortforms List names no longer word built on “thyself”, so these 3 cells write the bare word — and “thyselfs”, with an s added, is th-y-f-s, because a shortform keeps its cells when s is added (Rules of Unified English Braille 10.9.5). “good” is the opposite case — it carries seven different endings.
Learn it with the -self words
This is one of 7 shortforms built to the same shape — the pronoun, then an f — and the set is far quicker learned together than one word at a time: herself (herf), himself (hmf), itself (xf), myself (myf), oneself (onef), yourself (yrf).
What these 3 cells mean elsewhere
Every cell here has other jobs, which is where misreadings come from:
| Cell | Dots | What it is elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| 1-4-5-6 | the letters th inside a word, and the word “this” alone | |
| 1-3-4-5-6 | the letter y; the word “you” standing alone | |
| 1-2-4 | the letter f; the word “from” standing alone |
Check your own text
The translator writes “thyself” with Grade 2 selected, and the contractions page has all seventy-five.
“thyself” in braille as an image
The word as it is actually written: thyf in 3 cells, not 7 letters.
